Evening star., 1927-11-04
JAZZ IS revolt,
CRITIC DECLARES
Signaund Spaeth Gives First
Lecture of Community
Institutes Series.

The Community Institute OF Wash
fngton formally opened its series OF
programs on music, art, science and
other subjects of current and cultural
interests at Central High School last
night. with an unusually large au
dience, in spite of the inclement
weather. Frederic A. Delano. chair
man of the advisory committee, pre-
sided and introduced, in addition to
the speaker, the famous music critic
Sigmund Spaeth: also William Bruce
King of the Society of Fine Arts and
DR. George F. Bowerman. librarian Of
the Public Library of the District OF
Columbia. both of whose organizations
are associated with the Community
Center movement in backing the new
Community Institute. Mr.. King and
Mr.. Bowerman made a few brief re.
marks The former commented espe.
ciallv on the satisfaction the Society
of Fine Arts felt that at last the cul.
tural work which that society had
carried on for years under private
auspices should be taken under pub.
lie service auspices. DR.. Bowernlan n
assured the audience Of the co-opera-
ton of the library in providing lists
Of reading matter dealing thoroughly
with each subject which will he fea.
tured in the series of lectures in the
Community Institutes eXceliently COM
piied course for the year
The subject of the evening, present.
ed in the inimitably witty and force
ful fashion that is characteristic of
Mr.. Spaeth, was "JaZzmania, Musi-
cal ANALYSIS" The speaker chose to
apply his remarks to life and living
conditions in general as well as music
OF today. He stated that jazz is a
treatment rather than form of
music. and is really revolt against
the existing conditions.
Compares Differences in Music.
ain reality jazz is distortion Of the
conventions of music" said MFR.
Spaeth, and. later in his lecture,
quoted the French modernist,
Maurice Ravel. as saying that "the
rhythmic patterns and tone color of
jazz form Americas most distinctive
contribution to music to date"
In skillfully easy way Mr.. Spaeth
carried his keenly interested audience
through the basic analysis Of the
fundamentals of music rhythm (which
he defined as emphasized particularly
for so-called ''foot-listeners'0, melody
fperhaps the most important factor of
ALI, harmony, tone-color and form.
He Illustrated familiar rhythmic pat.
terms hid the rhythmic design. A
most amusing instance that he gave
showed the Funeral March" from
Chopin's famous sonata to be rhythmi-
cally identical with the wedding
. March from Wagner's opera,
'Ichengrin," vet the difference from
minor to major key and melodic pat.
tern made the two works entirely dis
similar in all other respects than that
Of rhythm.
Mr.. Spaeth emphasized the fact that
the reaFappreciation of good. so-called
classical" music. depends largely and
primarily upon the simple fact of
familiarity.
Ability to recognize a melody Is
distinctly human pleasure, evinced
anusingly by the applause of an
audience when a performer plays as
an encore some unannounced yet gen.
orally familiar work." said Mr.. Spaeth,
who showed how this applause is not
really for the performer. but the
audience is spontaneously applaudfng
itself for the pleasure Of recognizing
the encore. - !.
Radio Cuts Popular Tunes.
ITO my mind. the most important
thing is not to try and force good
music on an audience emphasizing its
value, but rather to expose people
TO plenty of good music with the
emphasis on their deriving honest
pleasure from the programs" said the
speaker. II understand that the radio
has cut the lives Of the cheaper, popu.
lar music tunes six months short, IL
offers so many more opportunities for
the public to hear and get tired Of this
music that does not have lasting
values. The only real difference be-
tween popular music and good music
ts that the composers of the latter
have used the same materials with