The Dallas express. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1893-1970, 1921-04-23
NEGRO'S GIFT TO MUSIC TRACED
TO IT'S SOURCE.

American Negro make plea for rec
ognltion. 1t has already become an
inseparable part of our national eX-
preston. The native utterances of
the Spiritual has found its place in
concert programs. and America has
become vocal in syncopated, allur-
ing music, traceable directly to Ne
gro outpourings. This is due partly
to the insinuating music itself, partly
to the work of the black mans own
musicians, and partly to the labor
of few who have interested them
selves in American folklore.
Natalie Curtis (Mrs. Paul Burton)
made a memorable record of Negro
music in her volumes in the Hampton
series, and in her latest book, Songs
and Tales from he Dark Continent
New York: G. Schrimer, Inc) she
traces the black mans gift to It's
source.
The story of how this book was
written is about as engrossIng as its
contents. After her work with the
American Negro, Miss Curtis was
eager to visit the fioriferous jungles
of Africa, there to record the songs
of the natives. The war raised up
forbidding wall.
To Hampton, however, had come
two full-blooded Africans. who, rich
in tales and songs of their people,
eagerly listened to the suggestion
that they sing their songs to her
and thereby enable America the bet
ter to comprehend the soul of their
race.
One of these youths, Simango, Of
the Ndau tribe. lived his youth in the
villages of his people. From his
earliest years he inhaled the breath
of pagan life, joining in the cere-
monies and dances, covering iin
dread before witches and the dead.
Finally, missionaries provided him
with the means TO come to America.
The other youth, Madikane Cele, Z
Zulu of royal blood was sent over
by his father who had been converted
by the missionaries.
Miss Curtis met them, as they came
straight from the dark continent, the
rick melodies of their people still
wildly in mind.
unsteady, these songs preserved ~
Miss Curtis have long left the prim-
tive stage. A polyphony unknown
to most early music is here, and
sense of form and sympathy not to
be denied Rythmically, the works as
found. The compleXity of the beats
unfamiliar, forceful, is barbaric ana
gripping. The most extraordinary eX
amples are found in the Rain Cere-
monies, in which solo voice and cho-
rus sing in harmony against the syn
copated and varied rythms of three
drums while a sombre moving tread
of slow. dancing feet marks a foun-
dalton.
For exquisite melodiC outline there
is the lament of widow over her
husbands death. To words, sonor-
GUS and solemn as a psalmOdic ut
terance, there is a setting of much
dignity, of imposing structure, whose
plaintive phrases slur downward,
like the tears in the African proverh
that fall backward into the heart"
The COLLECTION is numerous and pre-
cious to the art world. Symbol Of
word and melody merge to make vO
cal gems. There are the spirit cere-
monies in which the benumbing ter
ror of the black is visualized; chill
dren's songs and tales merry and
prankish; love songs of a rare and
elusive impressionism.
OF the Zulu songs, somewhat moro
warlke, some bearing o white inilu-
once, the most exquisite is a Song OF
Love, with words as elusive as the
poetry of the East
Besides it's music the volume con-
tains a treasure of other material and
leading scientists have appraised it
as the fullest and most authentic
record of African folk lore. Miss
Curtis books have a noble purpose
which she restates thus in her Atri-
can volumne: This hook, fruit of
much dedicated toll, rs offered to
white men and black Offered not
as an achievement. but us a prophesy.
May its pages, devoted to a true por-
trayal of African thought, make an
unconscious plea for that sympathy
which shall bring nearer the dream
of justice and recognition of spiritual
values as well as geographical and
political rights of nations. The hru-
tai carnage of the world war has
scattered the belief that true civ
ilization is anywhere a complete &C
complshment. 1t is still an ideal.
Should it not now be more than ever
a composite ideal? For only when we
admit that each race owes something
to the other. only when we realize
our vast mutual human Indebtedness
may we hope for that inter-racial and
International tolerance understanding
and cooperation which can at least
bring permanent peace"