The bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-06-04
THE NEGROES GIFT TO MUSIC.


One Of the most interesting facts IN
the world is that the greatest things
in he world have come from little
things. =,
The greatest sculpture that the wor.i
knows arvthine about came from inc
title country of Greece. The great
est dor3ma ever produced In the Wo1io
came from the immortal Shake ipeare,
when England was not the BRUSH
Empire upon which the 'sun never
SETS but when its was just a nttie
tinv country that we love to think OF
as "Merrv England.' The greatest
unsic of the German nation did not
come from the German Empire, but
what was then little separate German
state of kingdom. Many of the great
laws of today came down from thh
time when Rome although it Thought
itself the entire world, was just lit
tie mart of the world. The steam en-
CINE, the telephone, and the telegraph
were not produced in the days when
orr own United States has become
world power, but back in the early days
when we were but little group OF PEG
nile. and when it was time for the Christ
TO come, it was not in the greatest coun-
try nor the greatest people of that day
hut in a little country just little
group of people in comparison with the
And so we could go on and on and
trace many. many other great things
of the world to their origin, and find
that these things came from the small
countries and small people and more
often the humble people of the world.
Melodies Of Peasants.
How few people when they are SIT
ting charmed with wonderfully beautl-
full music of some grand opera. realize
that the basic of that greatest of all
music was from the simple melodies OF
the peasant people-the humble peo-
pie of the country. The real music
of every nation is built from the folk
songs; no matter how high nor how
classic. the basic bars are from the
humble homely songs of the peasants.
From lust q simple motive a great opera
is written; that is just q few bars
from some quaint old folk song fur
nishes the basic element upon which
the splendid music of the grand opera
is built; this motive and few bars
made the main thought and charac-
ter of the entire play. In the Ger,
man, Wagner built all his wonderful
music from the simple folk songs. Tan
hauser probably his greatest operaJ
is built upon a simple old German melo-
DIV; the motive of the whole opera is
from the quaint old folk song "Once
more dear home / with rapture behold
Thee Much italian music is based
upon the simple old Italian love songs
the songs of the gondoliers, Litztz
Hungarian, Rhapsodies are built en-
tirely upon the old Hungarian folk
songs. The French writers reached out
and used the folk songs Of other ma
tions, as well as their own, Chat is
they were ingenious and took every
thing that they could get from the
folk songs of other nations) and work
ed the themes into very artistic pro-
ductions.
Always From Simple Life.
Not only is it true that the greatest
music in the world is based upon the
music of the folk songs, but the great
paintings of the world are of subjects
from simple life of the peasant people.
Rembrandt s great picture of the pea
SAINTS and the calf is wonderful in
mother instinct and anxiety that we
see the cow IS mother eyes, in the worth
Of literature there is nothing that sur
passes Bunyon' IS Pilgrims Progress; its
greatness is its simplicity Dvorak the
great Bohemian composer has bulgt
wonderful music upon the simple Negro
melodies or songs of tho Negro peasants
of the South. One of his greatest pro
auctions is the "Humoresque based
upon "The Suwanee River His
'|Ncw World Sympony' has for its
basic elements the old Negro melodies.
Indeed the humble life of the Amerl-
can Negro is recorded in folk songs
and it is the only source upon which
America can build a real distinctly
American music uninfuenced by that
of any other country or school. Music
built upon these melodies will be the
only distinct national music that we
can have which we can call thoroughly
American. It is not Influenced by
European art in any way, and from
the Negro can come the only real Ameri-
can music. The two basic motives or
the whole Negro melodies are the re-
ligious and the sensual. The melody
HDcep River hasa wonderful motive
with it for a great religious opera;
6 Wagner of a Beethoven could take
q few bars of "Deep River land
build a wonderful opera. Indeed these
wonderful old plantation melodies that
have come out of the heart and mind
of the slaves of long ago are real
and great contribution to our own
America.
Treasurers of Negro Folk Songs.
It is chiefly through foreigners that
Americans have been shown the rich
treasure Of this Negro folk music. 1t
remains fora native American to de,
yelop this vein Of precious ore. And
who should so fully enter enter into that
great work for American art as those
native Americans of African descent
10Th CENTURY s,t SHHso WATCH go