Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-09


first memory one Of lulling himself to sleep
over his little French harp. and waking up in
the morning land playing 1t until my mother
was ready to wash me'-Mr. Astin has kept
more than a Jealous eye on the musical
peregrinatons of that age and this. He was
glad to be able to assist Dvorak, thinking that
he WAS also helping his own country. He was
hurt when afterward people said that the
s'New World" belonged more to Bohemia than
it did to America Since it seems to be
national trait that we grab at things before
they really are ours, it is curious that IN the
case of this symphony, whose cradle was
Seventeenth street in New York, and whose
soul was (partly at any rate) the slow haunting
rhythms of the Southland, we have patted it
gently on the back and gradually shipped it
away with foreign label earmark.
A STIN will "go to the mat" with people who
N disclaim its national American character
He sees in it the undisguised melodies which
he heard upward from his cradle days.
composer in his own right and a recorder of
many Southern songs, he has watched carefully
the evolution of the "Old World" and without
denying that Dvorak put much that was his
own in the work, he can see enough of the
native soil therein to champion it loudly not
for himself but for his country. Although a
fiery debate still is being waged as to what is
our national music, whether its grandSire was
the Negro the Indian, or the Pilgrim Fathers,
who blushed they ntoned their psalms there
to warrant his inclusion as one of the more
potent elements in our musical history. So
that when Seidl, the conductor who first led
this work in New York with the New York
Philharmonic Society, said to friend of Dvorak,
%You know the symphony is purely Indian
music" Mr. Astin, If he hasn't heard this
already, will probably receive something of a
jolt.
INDIAN music and Negro music-and what
] really is American music? Jazz, say some.
Astin says there is no such thing. 1t is all
ragtime So if it isn't jazz, it's ragtime-and
If it's ragtime-then where does, for instance,
Mr. Taylor's Peter Ibbetson" or Mr.. PowellS
"Southern works or Mr.. Hansons works be-
long? Mr.. Taylor's works are throwbacks to
Wagner some say Tin fact, one may note with
interest that no work of Deems Taylor as yet
has been able to do without the Wagnerian
sstigma" from one well known New York music
critic and the others fail as well to strike the
national character. some say. An unfortunate
state of affairs this-for il we can't claim the
Negro and we can't claim the Indian, and the
Pilgrim Fathers are no good, and everything is
said to sound like everything else-then where
are we?
"A far as jazz is concerned Astin links this
N I'D with that ancient group disbanded by
the Turkish government in 1875 called the
sJazzenetts" This was evidently an extremely
OutIandish group Of persons who danced lin q
single ray of light" and who had for musical
accompaniment a muff1ed drum-and who sup
piled other screams and calls and "hoots" them
selves From this it would seem that Astin
thinks Jazz originated. He disclaims jazz as a
national institution-for which perhaps we
should be thankful. He recommends in its
place those grand old songs which were sung
during the corn-huSking season, and which II
any one wants to know about Mr.. Astin can
supply IimitleSs information At any rate, they
are the old songs which have drifted from time
1mmemorial out Of the cotton fields and from
the working teams" along the Southern roads
and from wherever there was negro able to
cheer himself along as he did his days work.
THERE is much that could be said about Mr.
Astin and his concern for American music.
He has taught in schools sold pianos and done
most everything that could make him q living
side by side with his great motivating force
emusic" He has written . 'singable" tune
for 1.-THE Star Spangled Banner'-and this after
he had asked Dvorak TO write one and the COM
poser refused. He has tried TO inStin the love
Of Southern music into young children and
''old" children, and right now what he would
really like to do, he says, would be to get in
with Booker Washington's school and drill the
boys to sing corn songs" (haye you ever
heard any? They're well worth singing land
then take them to New England"-AStin has
little love for our Puritan brothers-"and among
other things, convince them that Dvorak'S
music" (the music that he wrote here)
sis American" Perhaps one of these days
Astin will put his ideas and his songs and his
memories as we'll into a neat little volume for
the benefit of the public. Ever since his little
French harp began playing he has had music
at heart. Although he says Georgia has ignored
him. we suspect that others haven't-and that
reward win come to him one Of these days in
some form or another-sooner, we trust than
later.
4 AME MARIE Won UNsCHULD has been