The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1927-01-28

it is distinctly an American con
tribution to the music arts. In this
contention there is a trace of just
ice, but no more, for upon careful
analysis of modern jazz and what
has gone before, the earnest stud
ent Of music finds that the
American contribution has been
nothing more than the coloring.
Conventional music is the steel en-
craving, and the modern or flam-
boyant jazz is the paint The one
accomplishment Of the American
artist, or composer has been the
dressing up of the picture.
1t is not in musical form that
American jazz is new, but in effect.
The music itself is as old as music
al expression. II is only the method
of presentation, the mechanics,
which has been changed. American
jazz is not an invention in music.
Rather it is an evolution, or per-
haps more correctly a resurrect-
ion. 1t is step in the same trend
which led up from the primitive
folk song OF European people to the
classics as we now recognize them.
Not long ago conductor, noted
for his classical renditions, we
complimented upon the beautiful
waiting effect" which he had just
produced upon the instruments Of
his orchestra The conductor. no
doubt with a mischievous chuckle,
demonstrated that the number
which had won him this praise
was nothing more than selection
OF modern jazz with all the tin-pan
effects deleted In a word, ne had
reduced the composition to its
basic form, essential jazz as
differentiated from the flamboyant
jazz Of the modern school. The re
suit was beautiful, for at the bot
tom of the worthier effects in jazz
composed the skilled musician
finds more than a grain or Two Of
merit.
Behind the syncopated hodge
podge of flamboyant jazz there is
usually a true melody. This leads
TO a certain conviction that the
composed of jazz is spiritually a
melodist. while mentally he is an
opportunist SEXES upon the form
Of musical expression which at the
moment is popular. Should the Jazz
era pass within his time, il is con
ceivable that this same melodist.
this same opportunist, may produce
a melody which future lovers OF
music Will list among the great
works of art
There is more 10 this modern
syncopation than simply its notes.
As interpreted, it embraces not
only the audible but the visible
Modern or flamboyant Jazz is music
with gymnastics. The flourish of
the trap drummer who jugeles his
sticks; the gyrations of the jigg-
ing violinist who must twirl his
fiddle about his fingers in time to
the drum-beat, catching il at the
moment to break into his next
measure; the uombonist who per
forms almost every acrobatc antic
short of standing on his head all
these are as much a part Of the
theatrical conception of jazz as is
the air itself
Thus jazz. as interpreted IN the
theatre, is essentially a music OF
motion. and to this is due its ire,
mendous popularity in the dance
halls. Just as the ancient folk songs
were closely interlinked with the
primitive dances, and as the one
Invariably inspired the other, so
the syneopated lit Of jazz insinu-
ates itself into the muscles, pro-
ducing the gymnastics of the
orchestra and the eestatic move
ment of the dancers bodies. It's
appeal is to the primitive emotions
which inevitably must be inter
preted by means of physical move
ment, as the Red Indians tomtom
provoking a warlke or a worship
full feeling, and set the Redskins
to prancing about their campfires.
Back of jazz is a long line Of
ancestors, beginning with the folk
songs of primitive peoples, notably
The Gaul and the Hungarian Their
primitive music was sung in jazz
time. TO the accompaniment Of the
tomtom and the flute, with the ac-
cent on the up-beat precisely the
mechanism employed by the mod
ern jazz artists. The hesitancy so
inseparable from the jazz air with
out which it could not be Jazz. is
no less typical Of the folk song
from which ii has sprung
From the primnal or primitive
10 w Of thn lnll. ennn. thn1.. 49, ~