Evening star., 1939-05-07
By the Associated Press,

By the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, May 6.-The music
that won the Pulitzer Prize scholar
ship for 1888 was revealed today as
a poor boys plant against the
squalor of the slums.
The boy was Dante Fiorillo, son
Of immigrant Italians
His winning of the $500 scholar
ship last Monday was told in few
lines of small type which said he was
the most talented and deserving"
composer of the year. Nothing more
was said of his work.
Dante won the prize on the basis
of the eighth of IL symphonies he
has written.
That eighth symphony was his
broken-hearted protest against the
slums in which he lived.
1t was begun when Dante, now
20, was in his early teens. 1t was
written in secret in one of the class
rooms of the Greenwich House
Music School at as Barrow street in
the heart of Greenwich Village.
Dante wrote the symphony there
because that was the one place
where he could find escape from the
dirt and the noise and the unhappy
life of the tenements.
Cringed From Slums.
! He had been born in the slums.
and he cringed from them. He tried
to get away from them as a small
boy by going for walks until he
reached nice" streets where side
walks were clean and people didn't
need to stick their heads out the
windows to struggle for air in hot
weather.
There are places in the slums
where the Sunbeams cannot come
because the houses stand too close
together. But no place is too dark
or too remote to be reached by the
sound of music
That sound reached Dante early
in life. At the age of 7, he was
picking out little tunes. by ear, on
an harmonium his father bought
for him. At IA, he was student
at the fount of all music in that
neighborhood, the Greenwich House
Music School, a branch of the
Greenwich Settlement House found
ed by the famous humanitarian,
Mrs. Mary Simkhqvitch.
Not a Good Cellist.
Dante was a cellist, not very
good one. But music kept running
through his head, and he yearned to
set it down. So when he and his
boyhood friends made their daily
flights to the school to play Beeth-
oven and Mozart and Bach and
forget their unfortunate home life,
he would hide himself away-on the
pretense of practicing cello-and
write his music.
For months he did that, working
in secret, until he came to know
Hank" Caroselli, a lanky violin
teacher with grave smile who came
out of Uruguay under the christened
name Enrique, but soon lost it in
the familiar lingo of the streets.
The dignity Of Enrique command
ed respect. 1t looked forbidding to
strangers. But beneath it the boys
found an affectionate friend and
they labeled him Hank"
Hank" was born soul member.
That's why they have made him
head of the music school since
then. He impressed on his pupils
the necessity of clean, firm tone
in their music. From there, it was
only step to clean, firm personal
character. Boys who first appeared
for practice dirty and disheveled
soon began to scrub their faces and
hands and clean their nails and
brush their clothes. AS teacher and
as director of the school orchestra,
he instilled an appreciation of beau
ty within his charges, and cultivated
it until it showed on the outside in
considerateness and good manners.
He bought new clothes for those
who needed them. He found jobs
wherever he could. Through his
ministrations and the sympathetic
efforts Of those serving under him,
he improved the family life Of many
Of his pupils by indirection.
Confided Secret of Music.
To Hank" Dante confided the
secret OF his music. The teacher
was enthused that in his orchestra
ALREADY laden with praise from
such great artists as Gabrilowitsch
twho was 50 impressed he played
as soloist with the boys, Betti,
Spalding and Hutcheson - there