The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1919-06-19
NEGRO MELODIES.

4
manent form the Negro songs of this
country lies open TO some master hand.
1t Is a store house filled to overlooking
With verse which in feeling and senti-
ment runs the ganut, SO that for more
than a century they have touched and
thrilled every fiber Of the human heart
and played on every emotion and hui
man passion. No matter whether
written by white folks, or the crude
songs Of the negro himself, there is in
them all sadness, a sorrow which is
born of the subjugation and slavery
| under which the negro race suffered
for years in this country, and which
seems TO tlnge and find expression in
all their songs, sad or serious, even in
those written since slavery was abol-
lshed Could it be otherwseP What
race, what nationality, sinned against
and suffering as the negro did for ages,
| but would thus voice the woes that was
theirs, and which suffering in many
instances was the real cause of the
| birth OF those SONGS and the touching
appeals TO human interest and sym
pathy almost all Of them contain.
Once heard they are not soon forgot
ten One may forget the singer, but
never such a song freighted with
human woes. Those songs sung by
negro singers have an added sweetness
and interest, when coined into speech
in the soft and melliAuous voice of "a
dark daughter Of the Sunny South"
Taking their key from the melodies
OF the southern negro, Emmett, Foster,
Bland and others wrote many OF the
undyipg songs, finding their subjects
and materials in abundance in the sur-
rows and customs, the croons and lula
bys of the black race. They merely
shaped into rhyme the abundant ma.
teria each found ready at hand in the
field thus invaded. The tune and SEN
timent were there found in the crude
negro songs, and the white authors
simply dressed these in the expressive
words which we all know in the popu.
lar negro melodies or songs. | have
listened to Clara Louise kellogg, Alma
Gluck, Louise Homer and other noted
artists singing negro songs, and no one
in the vast audiedce breathed while
the singer sang, so as not TO lose a note,
a bar, a thrill Of the beautiful song,
giving pleasures indispensable to the
fortunate listeners. But 10 me the
same songs sung by the Fisk Univer-
sity Singers" negro troupe which a
few years ago toured the larger Wis
consln cities, were far sweeter, more
pathetic, and appealing, when sang by
members Of the race TO whose woes
the songs gave expression, and the
peculiar tones Of the negro voice max
ing IL fit vehicle to convey the sor-
rows OF the songs sung Swanee River,
Old Black Joe, Massa's In de Cold,
Cold Ground, Carry Me Back To Ole
Virginia, and many more of the negro
gems and lullabys sang by this troupe
were truly classical and touchingly
sad The impressions then given, the
memories then awakened, will live and
last through lie time. ''Da Little
hut among de bushes" the hating,
shutting gait and form Of "Oid Black |
joe" coming, coming to his grave,
the negro dying away from cole Vir.
GINA, the hut and the cold Folks at |
Home, never before were so pain, so
real, facts, as they were that night TO |
every member of that audience that
heard those negro troupe singers.
Songs live forever Somehow great
deeds and men die soon. General |
Montgomery was right when he said, !
81 would rather be the author OF Gray's |
"Elegy la a Country Church Yard, "
than have the glory OF taking Quebec
on tomorrow. A song and its author
lives forever, time but adds to its |
sweetness and universally, while the |
great deeds Of great men die with |
them and are soon forgotten. John
Howard Payne "l1ome, Sweet Home"
Moores Last Rose of Summer and |
"Oft in the Silly Night" Ben jon
sons Drink to Me only With Thine
Eyes, Caroline keppe's "Robin |
Affair."" Robert Burns "Highland |
Mary" Stephen Collins Fosters "Swa- /
nee River and his other negro songs,
will live and be sung ages hence, when
the Nspoeons, Alexanders, Bismarks,
Moltkes, Lees, Jacksons, Shermans
and Grants will have long been for.
gotten and unknown. Such the lasting
influence OF those songs bred and born
OF the sorrows and woes OF humanity.
How truly aud forcibly this truth
comes to us, and It's cause lies in the
appealing pathos, the tender chords.
the tones and thrills OF the song itself
acting on the human heart and emo
tions, and awakening therein the pity
and compassion OF each human being of
every age. And those feelings con.
hned to no race, to no nation, being
universal, accounts for the survival OF a
song and It's sentiments, when all else
has sunk into oblivion and iorpetful.
ness. Fletcher Of Saltoum, voiced
this knowledge Of the lasting nower NJ