Evening star., 1944-06-24
Old Melodies Please
Water Gate Crowd:
PORTRAIT Performed
By ALICE EvERSMAN.

The old melodies that have beer
part Of our national life since
Revolutionary days formed tht
basis of most of the numbers playec
last night by the Water Gate Sym
phony Orchestra on program dedi-
Gated to the men and women of the
armed forces of this country
The evening began we'll, the
slightly overcast sky causing nc
anxiety. But as the program neared
Iintermission the first drops of rain
feel of a size to preSage a down
pour. Many hurried away, but quite
a few hardy souls stayed to hear
Copland's Lincoln Portrait" and
the second group of songs by the
American Ballad Singers, who were
the guest artists of the concert
Directed by Ellie Siegmeister, a
sembler and arranger of folk songs,
the six singers gave as effective a
performance at the Water Gate as
they have done in auditoriums. The
first selections included two by
early American composers. JeZaniah
Sumner and William Billings, fol-
lowed by folk songs of about the
same period both serious and gay
The voices of the singers, Helen
Yorke and Ruth Fremont, sopranos
Marcella Uhl. contralto. Lester
German, tenor: John de Merchant
baritone. and Earl Waldo, bass
blend we'll in the capella delivery
and are expressive of the variety
of sentiment the artists inject into
their presentation.
These songs, together with a Sec
ond group of Song of Today" in
cluding Mr. Siegmeister's THE
Lincoln Penny" fitted in appropri-
ately with the style of the program
1t began with the clever treatment
of when Johnny Comes Marching
Home" which Morton Gould has
used as theme for his Salute to
the U. S. A." and the stirring "Red
Cavalry March" in his arrangement
The vitality not only of the tunes
that grew out of national life, but
also of the American composers who
left their mark in the musical his
tory of this country was to be ap-
preciated in the following numbers
Rubin Goldmark's "A Negro Rhap-
sody" and Victor Herbert's Amer
ican Fantasy"
1t seems probable that the Gold
mark work was played for the first
time in many years. 1t was first
performed in 1928 in Carnegie Hall
New York. The imaginative talent
OF the composer is evident in this
Rhapsody, where the Negro melo-
dies are treated more broadly and
with less of the suavity and stress
on sentiment that Dvorak used
There are many arresting moments
In the work, which is written with
power and dramatic appreciation
making a symphonic number of i'm
portance from the we'll known
melodies.
Although Victor Herbert embodies
the very spirit of American life in
his style and type of music. it was
Coplands Lincoln Portrait" that
touched its depths and sacredness
OF feeling. Given it's Washington
premiere at the Water Gate two
years ago by Kostelanitz. who com
missioned its writing, it incorpo-
rates excerpts from Lincolns letters
and speeches, which were read last
night by Rev. Gilbert v. Hartke.
Q. p, as narrator The introduc-
tion is musical description of the
beloved President and musical bits
intersperse the reading, climaxing
with portions of the Gettysburg
Address" 1t is one of the most
impressive works of a present -dav
composer, emotionally strong, STIR
ring in it's power and true in its
Conductor Stanley Chapple seemed
to have a special affinity for the
music he directed, so convincingIy
did he grasp it's style and recreate
it. The spirited playing of the
orchestra, which also caught the
mood of the conductor, deserved the
it received.