New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-04-11

We feel moved to discourse which
We had fondly thought and Hoped would
never be called for by . reader Of
The Tribune's musical articles, because
Of the fact that the writer Of many Of
those articles in the course Of the last
thirty years has repeatedly tried to
make plain the principles which have
governed him in his estimate Of folk
music 1t must surely be more than
>Aree decades ago that the first discus
sion Of folk music in general and negro
and Indian songs in particular by the
writer appeared in the columns OF this
Journal. The subject has been dear to
his heart and occupied much of his
study for an even longer time, and
in all that he has written he
has tried to be consistent In
mental attitude toward fundamental
principles. or what he considered such.
He sees no reason for changing that
attitude because Of the arguments In
the following letter, which, however,
seems to justify q restatement of them
so far as the majority Of attempts to
make artistic use Of the songs Of the
North American aborigines arc CON
csrned:
70 the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: In yesterdays edition Mr.. Kreh-
bel gives very interesting report Of
che Musical Art concert, given on Sat-
urday, April 3. After the we'll deserved
praise for the work of the chorus and
the beauty Of the selections, criticism
was made Of the last three numbers,
the prescriptions Of North American
tunes by Natalie Curtis Burlin, espe-
cially of the Cowboy Song" as being
UNQUALIFIED musical vulgarity."
should like to offer two reasons
why I dissent from Mr.. Krehbiel's
Judgment. First, what makes any COM
bination Of tones either vulgar or
in the feelings that they awaken in
the listener. The history Of music
from Monteverde to Wagner is full of
illustrations in which combinations
that have seemed to the refined critics
of the day as being no better than
stupid noise have turned out to be
significant with expressive content and
accepted as part of the legitimate ma
terial Of the composer. If there were
my AO4nulo Aol telling US1OIcNdIlu LIlS
ugly from the beautiful it would then
be possible to manufacture artistic
music. 1t is this impossibility that,
1t seems to me, should make one hest
tate in classifying the music of our
red men as necessarily incapable Of
artistic use. That is a question for
the composer to determine, not the
critic.
My second point is development of
=
out on the high tablelands around the
Rocky Mountains and has been with
either Indians or cowboys would, in
listening to the last three numbers, in
stead Of having his attention focused
on the uncouth yaps and monotonous
rhythms, have had awakened within him
again the poetic charm of that big
country that stretches over the roof Of
the continent, where one feels near the
stars at night and the bracing air Of
sparkling peaks by day. Such listen
or would have felt the very uncouth-
ness Of the music as part Of the reality
that produced it's charm.
While it might be objected that the
program should not introduce music
that would require special experience
on the part of the audience to be IN
derstood, such an insistence would
practically cut all progress In develop
ing our resources of musical express
sion. 1t seemed to the writer that
the program was unusually we'll
planned. The extremely grave and
serious numbers in the beginning
formed the first movement, followed
by tho intensely emotional numbers by
Kurt SCHNEIDER and Bantock, serving
as an adagio; this again followed by
the lovely instrumental music that
might be thought of as the minuet,
which In turn, by gradual stages, led
to the rollicking finale Of the North
American songs.
The changes Of mood thus appealed
to are not only true to human feeling
and requirement., but have the unquali-
fed authority of the classic sonata
back of them. 1t is quite possible that
tho complete satisfaction the program
gave to the writer was due to some in
herent vulgarity in his own taste, but
considering the reasons given above,
may 1t not be that the excellent mont
tor Of our musical morals, whose serv-
ices we all prize so highly, was perhaps
In this case found off his guard and,
like Jove, nodding?
Very sincerely,
CHARLES H. FARNSWORTH.
Teachers College, Columbia Universi-
ty, New York, April 8, 1920.