The Washington times., 1937-02-24
BY CARL L. DENIES

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BY CARL L. DENIES
A prima donna threatened to
hold up the performance of "Pag-
liacci' Monday night at the Metro
politan Opera House. 1t developed
that in ali New York there is only
one trained and dependable don
key that can be counted upon to
draw the donkey cart in the opera.
AS the Management Of the Hippo
drome Opera Company having
billed the opera "Pagliacci' for the
anne night had made the previous
ARRANGEMENT for the services of the
donkey, the Metropolitan manage
ment reSorted to an untried mule.
For a wonder, the mule did not get
temperamental in spite Of the pres
ence Of number of opera stars on
the stage.
With all the discussion and space
devoted to describing Swing"
music, an old-timer, James H. S.
Moynahan in an article in a re-
cent issue of a national weekly
claims that there is no difference
between swing, jazz and ragtime.
He said, Swing, despite the tons
of recondite balderdaSh that have
been printed about it, remains
substantially what it was when
grandpappy was a boy watching
the band marching away to the
Civil War, and remarked: that
musics got a swing to it."
Moynahan refers frequently to
the Original Dixieland Jazz Band
as having something that has
never been initiated since. In
this Saturday Evening Post article,
he mentions in particular the
husky rhythm of the drummer
"he drummed-with real wooden
drumSticks - Tony drummed -
rolls, flams, ruffs,-he didn't swat
flies"
If modern drummers should get
a glimpse of the drummer in the
famous picture Spirit Of TITS, "
they would think the sticks were
held in a wrong position. Are
there any of the modern drum
mers that can really play a double
or triple ratamaque with real man
size sticks? The modern drummer
prefers to use effeminate sticks
about the size of pencil and oc.
caSionally dust off the drum with
wire brush and whack away at
all sorts of gourds, metal bangles
and wood blocks instead of getting
down to the business of learning
intricate rhythm. Shan Kar's
Hindu drummerS are so far ahead
of our modern drummerS that
the latter are not fit subjects to
even turn. the music for the for
mer. ..r--.,l ms ......a a.
The chamber music concert of
the Coolidge Quartet was given
yesterday afternoon in the audi
torium of the Library of Congress
before an enthusiastic audience
that practically filled the audi
torium.
The program opened with a de-
pendable quartet by Beethoven,
the Quartet in F, Op. 18, No. l."
which was performed with a
beauty of tone and integrity of
Interpretation that was indeed
charming. The short "Adagio and
Fugue in C Minor" (Mozart) fur
nished further opportunity for
melodic appeal.
The Quartet No. g." by Darius
Milhaud, was the concession on
the program to the modern mode.
A characteristic of the work was
the frequent use of dissonant har-
monies which were soon resolved
into more familiar harmonies. The
emphatic march rhythm Of the
last movement, Decide" was un-
usual in this form of music, but
served as an interesting diversion.
Peter Buys, the well-known
HagerStown composer and conduC-
tor, conducted his own tone poem
kaleidoscope" last night at the
Navy Yard Sail Loft in the con
cert OF the U. S. Navy Band Sym
phony Orchestra. The work is a
philosophic picture of the impres-