Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-02-01
THE CRITIC TALKS
TO MUSIC LOVERS
Weekly Comment on Things
Musical in Discriminating
Philadelphia

T,HB American composer, for the
l. piano at least, had field day In
New York last Saturday afternoon
when no less a musical parsonage than
Josef Hofmann devoted a recital OF an
hour and a half exclusively to the
works Of living American composers
The idea, to quote from one OF New
Yorl's leading critics. was to demon
strata in a measure that some of the
music, which. 1t has been assumed,
popular opinion wished to have banlsneo
from our concert rooms. out OF ueier-
ence 10 patriotic sentiment meht p
replaced by music created oy hs'iNe
composers still in the flesh.
The, composers represented on MT.
IIofrnann's program we're Horatio w
Parker. Fannie Dillon. Reginald DE
ISoven. Rubin Goldmark, Edward Royce
Daniel Gregory Mason, Mrs. Beacn'
CLAYTON Johns and Alexander Nc
tadyen. The work Of the last named
was the most ambitious ana III tne
largest form of any OF Mr.. Hoiihatll
selections. being a piano sonata IN louI
movements, a style OF compositior nol
often written in these days except oy
students and still less in favor of the
publishers. ,s
The compositions were well received
as naturally anything played by Hof-
mann would be. and several, notaoiy t,e
sonata by Mr. McFadyen, were Warmly
praised by the best of the critics, !ne
chief objection to the works, taxing
them as a whole. seemed 10 be that not
one of them contained note Whien
might not have come from across the
waters from Germany or Engiaho OF
France--not one measure which BY any
Ali, af ha ,,aQinaftOn DOlllQ De SET
down as characteristically AMERICAN
to quote one distinguished reviewer
rr>TJIS seeming lack of originality OF
/ musical thought is % reproach when
has long been laid at the door OF tf
American composer. and not without
reason. In the first place, there Is an
almost total lack of the hrst iunoa-
mental requirement for distinctive
national school of music in TINS coun-
try in the fact that We nave Nrtualy
no folk song. From the folk song mas
sprung every one Of the great natlonai
STYLES of musical composition, Whlch lot
lack of a better term We call school'
The greatly discussed FOLK song o.
the southern negro, which has much OF
the African aboriginal music in 1t and
very little of anything dlstlnctlVely
American, has been tried by such emf
neut writer's as George W. CHADWICK.
one of Americas best composers, ana
others without apparently revealing IT
self as the cornerstone OH which very
imposing musical structure can rest
Dyorall may be excluded. as he was
Bohemian, who always wrote in his own
racial idom in spite OF the experiments
with negro melodies that he undoubtedly
made in his New World" symphony
the American" quartet, the string SEX
tet, the piano quintet and other works.
The folk song of the American In
dian seems to offer an equally unpromis-
ing foundation. IL is not fundamentally
musical in the modern sense OF the
word and in it are expressed only The
most primitive emotions. 1t is not con-
structed on the eight-tone scale, which
is the basis OF the music of all civil
lized nations now and has been for more
than two centuries, and it does not in
any sense represent American musical
thought at the present time. It may be
that when this definite American
thought crystallizes both the negro and
the Indian music may play some part
in the sum total, but from present in
dicatlons neither will be very large
one.
WITH this tremendous handicap, the
w charge of nonoriginality made
against our composefs must not be