El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1920-08-12

MUSIC Is q tone or tones having any OF VI 0 ne ltdLAASa
W Of rhythm, melody, OF co1sonanoe; melody OF harmony
generally, as heard in nature OF art. Music Is the science
OF at Of a pleasing, expressive, OF ~tnteIhglole comoinauon
Of tones; the art OF making such combinations, especlaAy
into COMPOSITIONS Of definite structure and significance,
according TO the laws Of melody, harmony, and rhythm;
the art Of inventing OF writing, OF OF rendering suea COM
psitions. The-definitions are from Websters unabridged.
The noise being currently produced IN restaurants, dance
halls, moving picture houses, and on the great majority OF
monographs and pianos, both the automatic and the manual
varieties, possesses the single feature Of rhythm ana oy
that sole claim can it be classed for dictionary purposes
as music. Otherwise it does not bear the remotest Tesem-
Precisely an identical claim to be called Emusic is pos
sessed BY tie pneumatic riveter, the air drill, the machine
gun, the circular saw, the electric fan Of ~osSlstng type,
and the moving locomotive, for each makes q noise that
possesses rhythm, and that is all that can be said Of modern
'jazz' and all its relatives. The dictionary definition is
faulty because not exclusive enough to be reasonably
descriptive.
By ajazz8 for the purposes of this discussion is meant
eeo percent Of all compositions produced for instrumental
OF vocal performance IN America during the last four years.
Just one composition ont Of each 1000 is entitled to the
slightest consideration as being q musical composition. The
rest are not merely HuisanoeS, they are degrading, harmful
and hateful
This stuff possesses neither melody nor eOnsonanee. It
is not harmony. It is unlike anything ever heard IN nature
OF art. Il is neither a science nor an art, nor the result Of
either science OF art. Neither its invention nor its produc-
ton OF Interpretation demands that the inventor OF pro-
duesr possess the slightest knowledge Of music OF even a
grain Of intelligence.
He or she who raves over the beauty of the music Of a
Eaxon horn OF an open muffler, a steam siren OF a street
car gong, nay find delight in Jazz.
Jazz and all its relatives as above defined are neither
pleasing expressive, nor ineligible combinations Of tones.
These compositions have no definite structure OF signif-
eanee-
They violate all the laws of melody and harmony, and
most Of the laws Of rhythm.
When people 20 dsnce-mad, they can and vii dance to
anything capping hands and stamping feet are quite
enough for manys such.
But how they OF anybody else can bear to have these
hateful noises banging and jangIng in their eanE eontin-
ually without going insane, murdeTously insane is one Of
the mysteries.
Yet millions Of people actually buy this stuff in the
shops actually ask queer young men and gum chewing
young women TO @sing" OF play" II, actually buy phono-
graph records and player-uiano rolls with the stuff cut into
them, and take them home and put them in their instru-
ments and make them 90 around.
The vocal pieces are as bad as the instrumental Rag
tine OF s~yucopated measure IN itself is not necessarily IN
musicali many Of the worlds greatest composers have used
It effectively and wonderfully. But the rag time and syn
copated stuff Of this day is not music and its inventors
and producers are not musical People seem 70 have lost
the art Of singing OF playing music And having lost the
art they have lost the joy that comes from hearing music
sung OF played
This present day Jazz and rag stuff is expressive of
nothing except the degraded taste OF the time, and OF
shallow mindedness and eoarseness. In the dance hall it
can be tolerated because It marks the tine and helps put
q kick into the jolt that dancers enjoy as part Of the
sensuous stimulation Elsewhere il has not the shadow
Of an excuse for existence.
The s~axophone. an instrument whose capacity for beau
tiful music is comparable with the cello in right hands,
has been put on q plane with the steam siren for ughness
and shock to the finer senses.
TIE piano Is no longer played, It is merely executed.
The banjo, an American instrument with honorable
relatives IN al times and IN an nations, and with musical
abused in these jazz and rag gangs until it is less musical
thai coal going down a chute into a coal hole.
The drum and triangle, that Beethoven made the feature
Of one Of the loveIest movements Of his greatest symphony
are now regarded as fit rivals Of the boiler shop and the
railway crossing signal as orchestral enrichers.
The fiddle, next to the human voice the greatest OF al
solo instruments, is now, In the hands Of the typical Jazz
bandit as musical as q bandsaw tearing through q sheet
Of galvanized iron, and almost as pleasing as the sound Of
the trolley car Tasping aTouno an INCREASED curve in . sand
storm
This jazz and rag stuff in an eating plaza is a public
nuisance Of more than ordinary criminzity.
If there is one hour OF the day when a nan OF woman
likes 10 have peace and reasonable protection against IN
necessary disturbance It l. when he is eating. But the jazz
and rag bandits keep up their damnable racket almost
every minute If they would play music it would be pleas
ant, but they won't; they don't know how, but they DO
know how to wreck the last remnants Of love for ones
fellow men that q dinsr-out brings to the table with him
This stuff affects injuriously the nerves, the brain, the
eyes and ears, and above al the digestive apparatus. It
keeps one all a-gufver with unutterabls hatred and anger,
and ssts al the nerves Of the body TO high tension as the
victim feels an almost empowering desire TO smash all
the china IN the house over the heads Of the bandits OF
bandsmen. Il makes It impossible to rest the thoughts On
any one thing more than a tenth Of a second, OF to put two
Thoughts together. It makes conversation impossible, and
even a glance across the table seems to be broken IN two