Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-06-28
OUR NATIONAL SONGS

once in every little while. as regularly as
" the movements of clock or the vista
tions of comets. this broad land is swept by
a newspaper debate expressive of general
dissatisfaction with the national anthem.
The phenomenon is being repeated again.
Poets are being implored to write a new
song TO voice the spirit of the Republic.
Composers seClude themselves and grope
madly for great tune. Critics of the
Star Spangled Banner" are again remind
ing the country that the words of that
anthem are neither impressive nor really sig
nifCant and that the musical air to which
they are set is of foreign origin, and of
debatable quality.
Meanwhile, ready at hand, there IS an
other song Of majestic beauty, marvelously
eloquent of the rarer and nobler moods of
the American people, created out of our own
experience, which surely would have been
formally designated as the national anthem
long before this If there had been in Con-
gress better understanding of musical
values and anything like adequate apprecia-
ton of the poetry of language That is
The Battle Hymn of the Republic"
The Russians have-or had before the day
Of the Soviet Government-the statelicst and
most beautiful of national anthemS--a slow,
infinitely moving chant suggestive Of
strength and pride and profound spiritual
feeling. The Marseillaise is a song OF fire,
song of defiance, written originally to ex-
press the spirit of civil revolution. The
Briton's God Save the King is we'll
enough in its way.
None of these great songs, not even the
stupendous hymn of the Russians, is 50
thrilling in sound and color, so charged with
emotion or so worthy to be a sort of ma
tional litany. as the song OF prophecy and
resolution which Mrs. Howe wrote to an air
created somewhere in obscurity to fit the
laundering rhythm of the march of Union
armies.
II is doubtful whether such another song
ever could be written again in the United
States You heed more than talent to do
that sort of thing. 1t is out Of crisis, out OF
passion and faith and danger that such
work comes; out of times in which the
hearts and spirits of a people rule over their
collective mind. In these intervals there II
usually some one about with an almost
divine interpretative talent to render forth
the whole meaning and significance of the
mood or the event in matchless words or
matchless music.
Who. hearing the Battle Hymn Of the
Republic chantcd by multitudes in the years
of the recent war, could be unconscious Of
the note of authentic prophecy that genius
had nut into II or doubt its Immortality
among songs? II was the product of the
noblest and most trying years of our history.
1t gave voice 20 the best that is in us.
Musicians profess to believe that the
quality by which music lives is indefnablc.
But il Is always noticeable that songs that
strike beyond the mind to the emotions of a
nation or a race do not die young. The
Civil War period left to us the best songs
we have, songs written in the heat Of valor,
in moods Of sorrow or timed to the beat Of
innumerable drums. These songs are sim
plc in their terms but universal in their
appeal and their Implications. They are Of
elemental things.
Some Of the Negro songs, so called, heard
nowadays and destined to live as long as
singing voice is left in America, reflect more
than love of country. They reflect love Of
the actual soil, the pain Of absence from
familiar places, the terrible lOnesOmeness OF
age. You have to be very old or very wise
to know that a path once loved, or tree
or even a familiar field or an empty door.
way can be a source Of living comfort after
all else is gone THE place where ] was
born" is a blessed place always to old pcO-
ple. About it some of the loveiest songs
have been written, as well as some of the
greatest poetry.