Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-03
.EN-GALLON felt hats, loud
| plaid shirts and chaps that
end in tho cp,,rrcd I,inh


end in the spurred, high
~ \ heeled boots of the typical
. cowboy will compete with the gay
blankets and beaded and feath-
; cred costumes of Indians for
+ picturesque triumph in musical
events today and tomorrow in the
National Capital of the United
States of America. Inauguration is
= upon us, and with it all the side
r, shows that make up the colorful
pattern of American national life
The time doubtless will come
when an American composer will
. be as inspired by the traditional
legends and plaintive songs Of the
cowboys as MouSsorgSky and other
Russian composers were inspired
by the stories and songs of the
>ICosSacks, those ferociouS clans
who guarded the frontiers of their
country so brilliantly. And surely,
just as different from the Russian
music will be the American music
as the lonely self-sufficiency Of
= the cowboy is different from the
tribal attitude Of the CoSsack.
Another national musical ele-
ment will be shown in the con-
cert tomorrow night by the
American Indian Band Orchestra,
which. with a membership made
up of representatives from 16
tribal groups throughout the
country, will play during the in
augural ball.
Again on Wednesday the efforts
of the earliest pioneers of this
country will be applauded in the
epic rhapsody written by Ernest
Bloch, naturalized American citi-
zen of California, who won the
prize for a symphonic work Of
fered by Musical America. In this
work the first number is based
upon Indian tribal melodies and
old Puritan hymns, and depicts
= the life of the early white settlers
in America. The second move
ment is said to describe the old
South, beginning with the gay
and carefree days before the
Civil War, including old reels
and hornpipes, a suggestion Of
"Swanee River" the gay meas
ures of Pop Goes the Weazel."
suddenly broken by the tragic
measures of the outbreak of war,
in which John Browns Body"
and 1.-THE Battle Cry of Freedom"
are heard. The third movement,
entitled 1.-THE Present-The Flu
. ture," opens with a depletion of
our own age of riotous jazz and
pounding machinery. A long
preparation leads to the an
nouncement in it's full form OF
the anthem, America" which, to
Bloch, represents the ideal which
lies before our people.
TT is through the folk music that
L forms the background Of a
country's indigenous development
that the great music OF any ma
tionality is written. Folk themes,
if retained merely as folk themes,
are not of inSpirational quality,
but when a Bach or a Beethoven
takes the simple country dance
and the melody that the peasants
used for it as basic material from
which they build dance suites,
sonatas, string ~quartets and
symphonies, then is the innate
national significance Of the music
truly valued. At the present time
Bartok is doing much Of this in
his extremely modern style Of
composition. Vaughan Williams
rhapsody on Norfolk folk themes,
heard here last week, was an adj
mirable example of this During
the coming week Signor ToScanini
will play Respighi's third and
final Roman musical picture,
FIESTA Romano" inspired by the
revelS of the early feast-day cele-
brationS in historic Rome. This
completes a Roman trio of varied
impressions. including as the first
two Fountains of Rome" and
'The Pines of Rome"
In the first division Rome'S
glory of early days is evoked, the
Rome under the Caesars; another
movement features the Fall festi-
walls, when the grape Is ripe and
the hunt is on. 1t is said, all In
all, to be Roman holiday for
fair. Thus does one of the leaders
of the group Of present-day COM
posers of Italy pay tribute to those
early days of his land in tone
color suggested by the actual his
torical background.
xx%&
IN France, Ravel, who has found
L inspiration for his newest work,
musical-play version of the sub
ject, Jeanne d'Arc"-named for