Evening star., 1925-06-15
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES Z. TRACEWELL.

thing with others. Music is one of
| man is a poet when he listens to
| music and creator Of 1t when he
plays 1t.
No one who truly loves music. then,
| will sneer at the man who honestly
| likes popular music, who does not
| understand" as he says, the great
| musicians, and who takes genuine joy
| in the thump-thump of the dance
| orchestra.
Rhythm, melody and harmony
these three are the basic factors in
| all music, simple or complex. The
| dance orchestra has them all, with
| the accent on the first and the sec
| ond, especially the first.
Each dance orchestra, whether 1t
plays for fashionable dancers at a
| swell hotel or elsewhere, is an un-
| conscious educator, and as it's director
has some conception of this fact, and
as its members are trained musicians,
| so will it's influence be felt.
No doubt some players will be as.
| tonished to be told that their pow-pow
about Red Hot Mamma" has any
| educational value. The tune is not
particularly good one, and the name
is a vulgarity and a desecration.
| Yet even such thing as this. in the
hands Of skillful dance players, has
a lit that carries 1t across. There is
something of the steady surge of the
sea in the underlying beat of such
| an orchestra.
1t is life! 1t is more than A time
1T Is the ceaseless activity of crea.
ton. underlying the world standing
behind and underneath the entire
| universe, the restless energy of atoms
| and molecules, hurling themselves
tirelessly and endlessly against each
| other.
When the saxophone walls, and the
old banjo beats in with steady chords,
or the piano crashes harmoniously, or
the bass horn rumbles in time below
| all, we feel related to all that exists
From this standpoint, the orchestra
| ceases to be simply an orchestra, and
| becomes an instrument Of greater ex-
preston.
l hope that no reader feels that !
have overdone this idea. 1, too, love
the greater organizations, such as the
Philadelphia Symphony, and know
that no dance orchestra conta ins such
a master violinist as Fritz Kreisler
Yet the smaller, lesser organization
has its place. and because of it's great
er prevalence and the tremendously
| cdlSl WHICH II
daily, has perhaps infinitely greater
possibilities for good.
| The standard of such orchestras has
been raised considerably in the past
10 years by reason of the fact that
greater rewards have come to such
musicians. attracting many who for
merly did not feel such playing profit
| able.
| The future of these little orchestras
commonly of about 10 men, sometimes
twice as many, will be limited only by
their own refusal to play the best
music. At present the trend is just
the other way, toward more and better
dance arrangements Of the classics
| Such orchestras should rule out. too
for their own good, the needlessly
vulgar in words and actions Toe
much trick stuff absurd motions
while playing, and songs with vulgar
words. should go by the board
! There is too much good stuff tc
bother with the poor, too much good
clean music, decent songs, to spend
time appealing to the lowest tastes OF
the low. 1t should be a thought tc
thrill any dance musician, whether ht
plays in trio or larger organization
that one Of the old masters could ster
into his orchestra without any shame
whatever, for the old symphony
bodies were primarily dance orches
tras-