Evening star., 1931-06-21


had not vet been installed in the churches,
and the singing of anything but the
simplest chorals was considered sklttish ana
extremely wicked thing to do In other words,
the dawn of music in this country was not
sudden and fiery event-but rather cramped
and ng-drawn- out affair, which-n our pilgrim
forefathers had had the regulation ot-might
have resulted in nothing more than mild musical
Accomplishments to mider songs OF the spirit"
or perhaps unexciting fugues done In imitation
of their father fugueS.
The slow growth of music in the United States
Is clearly indicated in an extremely important
new book by John TaSker Howard, called Our
American Music Three Hundred Years of It"
Although Mr.. Howard tries to suggest that this
branch of the manly arts has run along with
some of the others in leaps and bounds, when
one realizes that it wasn't until the turn Of
the middle part of the last century (1850) that
we had composers who remain familiar in this
day-and that jazz is now possibly our most
characteristic ational music, one Is aware that
we have not been precisely up and coming.
Mr.. Howards book is one that should be at
hand in any musical library. He has tracked
down with foresight and energy the causes,
reasons, factors and impetuseS which have gone
into the making of what there is Of American
music He tabulateS to great advantage and
with great clarity the composers their i'm
portant works and why they are important, and
his long list of anecdotes are worth any ones
and every ones attentions. Thus one is told
the sad biography of that craftsman of South
ern melodies, Stephen Foster, whose "Old Folks
at Home was written at the request of E. P.
Christie of Christy's MinstrelS one reads that
Daniel Gregory Mason's first music was prob
ably written for the Harvard Hasty Pudding
Club shows; that Deems Taylor has been a
newspaper man, critic, lnguist, translator of
prose and poetry, artist with pen and brush,
editor and public speaker; that the first public
concert in this country given in Boston
beating Charlestown by four months; and that
m 1871 the first organSt of church in Phila-
delphia (to the horror of the New Englandites)
wrote letter in defense of the organ, claiming
that its music would attract and civilze the
wild Indian"
IN reading this book-which is long, but vital
IN its various manifestations Gall branches Of
music are written about: church, instrumental,
voice, operas, virtuosos, composers-folk songs
and national anthems-these are particularly
interesting)-Mr Howard brings a calm cool
but sllrewd judgment to bear on his characters.
Nevins he is for-rather than against (and this
in an age when it is the fashion to pooh-pooh his
works MacDowell he praises, but not in the
hysterical manner of so many of his followers
of today; Francis Hopkinson he admits is our
first composer, dwelling on the letter which
this educated man wrate to George Washington
when he sent along his first copy of Seven
songs, for harpsichord or forte piano." in which
he modestly asserted that "I cannot be refused
the credit of being the first native of the United
States who has produced q musical compost
tion," and Mr.. Howard openly seems to profess
q weakness for George Gershwin.
Particularly is it interesting to watch for the
development of music in various sections of the
country during one period; while New England
growlS at instrumental music, Charlestown wit
nesses the first opera Tin 1885, "Flora, or Hob
in the Well') and later while Boston be-
comes the center of certain musical under
takingS one finds advertisements in New York
papers to the effect that vocal concert for
the benefit of the Respectable Aged and Indi-
gent Female Assistance Society" will be given
on such and such day, and that admission to
q a.~muSical party in the middle nineteen hun
dreds was usually something like 12h cents
IT is all highly romantic business this growth
of American music, and it is rather curious
TO note the tremendous Importance that certain
mgrationS from other lands have had on it.
This is point seldom thought of. While we
fret and storm and worry over what is going
on musicaly abroad we forget that at home
things quite as interesting are happening, al
though they may be too near the end of our
noses to see properly. Nor are we inclined to
realize the briefness of 'our music" or remember
that from 1920 to 1900 little has survived to
this day except Hodens Coronation; yankee
Doodle" and 'Hail Columbia; and that from
1900 to 1860 there was Lowell Mason and the
hymn writer's, as we'll as GottSchalk and
Stephen Foster-but comparatively little else.
1t is not really until John K. Paine and Dudley
Buck comes along that things begin to stir
themselves-and such musical pinnacles as were
provided by Nevins and MacDowell came to
light.
Thereafter things begin to take more lively
turn. Particularly interesting to Washing
tonians in this book should be the references
to Mr.. Sonneck, former chief of the Library of
Congress Music Division and Carl Engel Zone
realizes, too, what tremendous storehouse of
musical history is treasured in this vast library,
and how much through its help and such help