New-York tribune., 1919-12-17

give 1t the attention which it deserves
ana must even dispose of the other
features Of the concert with mere
mention. These were Bach's concerto
IN y Tor clavier, flute, violin and an
orchestra of strings, which was capi-
tally played by Harold Bauer, August
Roedeman, Samuel Gardner and
small band; a seventeenth century
english madrignl Weep No More" by
lomkins; two-part songs: "They Are
at Rest" and Love" by Sir Edwa I'd
Eigar, and setting Of "Elsic Morley. y
a North Country song, by modern
Englishman named Whitaker.
Among so much music of unique at
tractiveness, the comparatively con
ventional features, like the hymns by
Hcnubert and Mozart, we're more or
less less transltory in their appeal, though
.nev were among the charming fea-
lures lures Of the evening, because of them
selves and the manner of their per
iormance, especially the "Adoramus,'
winch linked the eighteenth century
with the sixteenth.
The death Groom is a surviva,
among the Gaelic inhabitants of the
hebr1des of a custom unspeakablv
ancient and once universal. 1t lives in
the Keen" of the Irish peasantrv TO-
DAY, with its lamentable exclamation
OF "Och hone!" At the risk of falling
~, III tne estimation of our COLLEAGUE of
Inc Irlbune's dramatic Department. we
confess that we heard "Keenin" in q
per1ormance Of Boucicault's "Shaug-
raun' before Mr.. Broun was born. and
that the ceremony, though shot through
with comedy element. yet left an i'm
preston Of pathos and beauty on our
mind. The custom goes back to pagan
tlmes, OF course, but in the ancient
kestlc Church the Groom was sung for
the dying first by the Anam -cha,u. or
soul friend.' assisted by three chant
ers. later by the elders Of the town
snip, and finally by professional mourn
ers for hire.
Still an Irish Custom
irish rural communities still have
their two or three old women who sit
beside the body at the wake. rock back
and forth and utter their doleful cries ::
and since the Groom was associate d
last night with two hymns of the
American blacks, it is not inappropri-
ate to call attention to the fact ts,at
IN Jamaica the negroes still have their
"settin' up when they place a diving
person on the floor in one room. fiji
the house and it's nearby outside sur
roundings with friends who sing HYMNS
and "anthems' all through the night.
In some parts of Africa nocturnal
music of this kind is kept up until the
patient is either convalesccnt or dead.
In our own South in slave days the
blacks buried their dead at night, like
the ancient Romans, and indu ged in
death chants and even death dances.
Some OF the most pathetic and
beautiful songs OF the American ne
Of
and when friend used to sing to a
soul quitting its mortal frame and
burden the song with message to the
Kindred gone before, we can easily see
IN the custom something like the dread
fui annual sacrifices in Dahomey, when
the King whispers mysterious greetings
to his predecessor on the anniversary
of his death into the ears of a number
OF captives and changes them into
ghostly postmen by cutting off their
heads
Survivals of Ancient Poetry
In the text of the Hebrdredian Groom
them are probable survivals Of ancient
poetry i'll alluslons to the Journey of
the dying person to the "Winter-Ever-
house, the "Autumn. Summer and
Sprlngtlde Everhousc' and the Shores
OF the River" But the chant has
Christian elements in alusons to
Christ and the Trinity. and there is
a lovely pathos in its aracterzation
OF death as youth sleep" and life
sleep of Jesus on His Mothers bosom.
Mr.. Bantock has built up his beautiful
piece on the short musical phrase.
which is iterated and reiterated by the
soul fired and the three cantors, and
has given free rein to his harmonic fancy
IN his treatment of the voices. utiliz-
lng the device of mere vocal-hum-
mings. among other things; but he has
made the music strangely evocative of
the imaginative and emotion OF his
hearers.
The singing of this composition was
quite the most remarkable feature of
An evening which was full of delights,
and eliminated in the slave songs
which Miss Curtis (now Mrs. Bevein)
has arranged so as to preserve the
characteristics of the sing
ing OF the one-time slaves of America
and to illustrate their innate sense of
The songs were "Spirituals,"
he first beginning Oars Star in de
Eas' on Christmas Mo'n," the second
Mary Had a Baby which is Nativity
'antcle among the blacks of st. Helena
sland. In each case leader (renaced