New-York tribune., 1921-11-26
Skilton's Indian
Pieces Given by
Stransky Players
Songs Prove Interesting, hut
Lack Artistic Pregnancy;
SSMefistofelc" Is Sung by
Fine Cast at Metropolitan
BY RI. <. Krehhiel

At concert by the Philharmonic
Orchestra in Carnegie Hall yesterday
afternoon Mr.. Stransky exhibited the
latest attempt which has fallen under
our notice to utilize phrases from the
native music of the aborigines Of
America in the construction of an
artistic composition, He performed
three numbers from "Primeval Suite"
by Charles Sanford Skilton, who is
professor of theoretical and applied
music in the University of Kansas
The pieces were two songs which ae-
company gambling games of the rcd
men and q serenade. The themes, we
are told, were noted down by Professor
Skilton from performances by members
respectively of the Oregon, Sioux and
Winnebago tribes, and IN the second
piece, by far the most interesting of
the three, an effort at vcrisimilitude
was made ty permitting the flute to
initiate the pipe used in their court
ships by others of the plains Indians
besides the Sioux, though the Indian
pipe is not flute, strictly speaking,
and might, we fancy, have been as
easily introduced into the orchestra
(for the original exposition of the
melody. 1t leastl as the Indian drum,
with It's persistent beat, which Profes-
scr Skilton used in the two gambling
songs. For q hundred counterparts of
the themes of these songs he might
have consulted any one of the publica
tions by the Smithsonian Institution
devoted TO Indian ceremonies. In them
are pages upon pages of reiteration of
what ua kcva berotofrra oh, 1T zpd
50 the Indian melodic formula.
Professor SHELTON sought to make
these themes interesting, and sue
ceeded, to commendable degree,
by covering them with colorful
harmonic and instrumental integu-
ment. That they seemed to have little
artistic pregnancy we thought he con-
fessed by the little attempt which he
made to develop anything out of them.
After uttering them q few times,
doubling the tempo of the first, on
two occasions to indicate the excite
ment developed by the red men in
their gambling games, and giving them
varied color, he stopped. The pieces
were, therefore, laudably short and
their effect as bits of characteristic
expression attained. They were inter
est.ng because moderation was exer-
eised in the effort to make them so.
But they failed, as all other efforts.
save McDowell's. have failed, to con-
vince us that effective artistic material
is to be extracted from American abo-
Iiginal tunes.
The program began with Brahms's
symphony in c minor, and after the
Indian pieces Mr.. Stransky added
Sibelius's strikingly beautiful illustra-
tion from the Kalevala, entitled "The
Swan OF Tuonela," and Tschaikoff-
sky's Italian Caprice"
Mr.. Gatti's revival of Boito's "Me-
fistofele" (the opera had it's first per
formance for this season at the
Metropolitan last night) differs from
the performances of years ago in that
the minds OF the spectators are not
thrown into confusion by seeing the
same singer in two characters. as
Margherita in the tragedy and Helen
of Troy in the intermezzo called "The
Classical Sabbath" 1t is difficult
enough to conceive Faust transported
back to mythical Greece; it is i'm
possible to comprehend transmogrif-
cation of Gretchen into the woman who
provokes the Trojan War. 1t was
Nine. Nilsson who introduced the Gus
tom of giving the two characters to
the same singer. and so long as she
was their representative critical con-
formations had to give way to the de-
light which her regal presence and
lovely voice and style created in the
classical scene. Nine. Aida might also
create beautiful illusion. but it is
here that Mr.. Gatti shows his respect
for poetical varities by leaving the
impersonation of Margherita to her