N. Y. CITY MUSICAL AMERICA
OCTOBER 23, 1926

the works announced for the last concert
of the season.

## League of Composers

The League of Composers announces that it will open its fourth season devoted to the promotion of modern music with the first public appearance in New York of the Belgian Pro-Arte Quartet. At this concert will be heard at least two compositions never before given in the United States. The concert is scheduled for the evening of Oct. 28, in Town Hall. The program will include works by Alban Berg, quartets by Szymanowski and Honegger, and a trio with piano by Ravel.

Serge Koussevitzky, who led a picked group of men from the Boston Symphony at a chamber orchestral concert for the league last year, will re-appear under the same auspices, by courtesy of the trustees of the Boston organization, at a concert in Town Hall, on Nov. 27. He will present a program of première performances, including Stravinsky's "Mavra" for chamber orchestra and voices; "The Creation" by Louis Gruenberg, a setting of James Weldon Johnson's poem, and a work written especially for the League of Composers by Béla Bartók.

In January there will be a recital of works by young Americans in the Anderson Galleries. In March the league will give its final concert, which will be devoted to stage works.

Modern Music, the quarterly review published by the league, will also enter the fourth season of its existence. It will present several novel features, one of which is an issue devoted entirely to American subjects, to which the majority of contributors will be Americans. There will also be a series of articles on mechanical music, color and music, moderns

orts of Europe.
MUSIC FOR J. W. JOHN-
SON'S "CREATIO"

NEW YORK, Nov.— Serge Koussevitzky, conductor of the Boston

Symphony orchestra and one of the leading orchestral conductors of the East, is to conduct a chamber orchestra concert in The Town hall on November 27, at which will be epr- formed a musical setting, composed by Louis Gruenberg for James Weldon Johnson's poem, "The Creation"

This will constitute the first performance in America of the work Other compositions of leading European composers are also to have a first American performance on this occasion, the composers represented including the Russian composer, Igor Stravinsky, and Béla Bartok.

The League of Composers is one of the two groups in New York which devote themselves especially to the performance of modern music, the other being the International Composers Guild.

# THE LEAGUE OF COMPOSERS

Presents
A PROGRAM INCLUDING
SEVERAL NEW WORKS
with

conducting an ensemble from the
Boston Symphony Orchestra
By courtesy of the society's trustees

SATURDAY, NOV. 27
at 8:30 p. m.

IN TOWN HALL

## THE PROGRAM

IGOR STRAVINSKY . L'Histoire du Soldat

BELA BARTOK . . . Village Scenes

LOUIS GRUENBERG . The Creation

ANTON VON WEBERN . Five Orchestral Pieces

HANS KRASA . . . Chamber Symphony

## Assisting Artists

JULIUS BLEDSOE, BARITONE
THE BRAHMS VOCAL QUARTET

In January . A Recital of American Works

In March . An Evening of Works for Stage

Four Issues of the Review, MODERN MUSIC

For subscriptions apply to League of Composers, 29 West 47th Street
For tickets for single concert, apply at Town Hall box office

The League uses the Mason & Hamlin Piano

THE K. C. RECORD SEARCHLIGHT, FRIDAY, NOV. 12, 1926

To Give Your Lincoln Individuality

WHETHER your choice be a Lincoln of standard or custom built body you may have here the assistance of an experienced organization in giving your motor car pleasing individual smartness.

The beautiful standard Lincoln body types may be varied with distinctive colors combinations and appointments to give striking personality.

Or you may choose for your Lincoln a custom-created body with magnificent coach work of exclusive design, personally selected with our assistance and built by one of the foremost body builders.

For your convenience our telephone number is Ashland 3020

PARK CENTRAL MOTORS.

Park Avenue at 46th Street

Branches at Stamford and Greenwich, Conn.

CONCERT MANAGEMENT
ARTHUR JUDSON
ANNOUNCES

MENGELBERG—SCHELLING
N. Y. Philharmonic Orchestra

2nd Orchestral Recital: TOWN HALL, Sat. Eve., Dec. 4, 8.30

3rd Orchestral Recital: Aeolian Hall, Mon. Aft., Dec. 13, 3.00

(Steinway Piano)

RECITAL MANAGEMENT ARTHUR JUDSON
announces

DONATELLA PRENTISI

Dramatic Soprano

CARNEGIE HALL, Wednesday Evening, December 1st, 8.30

Frank La Forge (Composer-Pianist) at the Piano

(Steinway Piano)

GDAL SALESKI
'Cellist

STEINWAY HALL, Wednesday Eve., December 1, at 8.30

(Steinway I' piano)

DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

OSSIP GABRILOWITSCH, Conductor

CARNEGIE HALL, Tuesday Evening, December 7, 8.30

International Composers' Guild, Inc.

Founded by Edgar Varese
Sixth Season

THREE SUNDAY EVENINGS OF
NEW MUSIC

conducted by

EUGENE GOOSSENS
and
LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI

(By special permission, Board of
Directors, Philadelphia Orchestra)

Aeolian Hall, Sunday Evenings, November 28, January 23, April 17

For subscription rates write to
Concert Management Arthur Judson

113 West 57th Street

Telephone Circle 7366

(Baldwin Piano)

(4)

"BLESSED ARE THOSE BOYS and GIRLS

who have behind them the urge of appreciative
and understanding parents—"

DO YOU KNOW that there is an organization
in this city which helps fathers and mothers
keep in close touch with their children's school
progress, and enables them to ACT TOGETHER
for better educational conditions?

MEMBERSHIPS: $1.00—Sustaining; $5.00—Con-
tributing; $10.00—Supporting; $100.00—Donor.

Join the

UNITED PARENTS ASSOCIATIONS
Of Greater New York Schools, Inc.

152 West Forty-second Street
and help this fundamental work.

Send for complimentary copy of
THE SCHOOL PARENT

Space donated by a member of the U. P. A.

TOWN HALL ANNOUNCEMENTS

DECEMBER

Saturday Eve., Dec. 4—Willem Mengelberg, Ernest Schelling and the Philharmonic Orchestra.

Sunday Aft., Dec. 5—Society of the Friends of Music, Orchestral Concert, Artur Bodanzky, Conductor.

Monday Eve., Dec. 6—Motion Picture, Martin Luther and His Time, Benefit for N. Y. Aux. American McAll. Ass'n

Tues. Aft., Dec. 7—Joseph Coleman, Violin Recital.

Tuesday Eve., Dec. 7—Joint Recital, Dorothea Chamberlin, Soprano, and Joseph Kayser, Baritone.

Wednesday Eve., Dec. 8—Oscar Ziegler, Piano Recital.

Thursday Eve., Dec. 9—James Woodside, Song Recital.

Friday Eve., Dec. 10—Hon. Alexander P. Moore, Lecture, "Romantic Spain, Practical America."

Saturday Aft., Dec. 11—Dmitri Tiomkin, Piano Recital.

Saturday Eve., Dec. 11—Iseo Ilari, Song Recital.

Sunday Aft., Dec. 12—The English Singers.

Monday Eve., Dec. 13—Woodrow Wilson Memorial Ass'n.

Tuesday Eve., Dec. 14—Bruce Benjamin, Song Recital.

Wednesday Eve., Dec. 15—Frank Sheridan, Piano Recital.

Thursday Eve., Dec. 16—The Tollefsen Trio.

Friday Eve., Dec. 17—Hon. Henry Morgenthau, Lecture, "The Greek Refugee Problem."

Saturday Eve., Dec. 18—Mt. Holyoke College, Choral Choir Concert.

Sunday Aft., Dec. 19—Society of the Friends of Music, Orchestral Concert, Artur Bodanzky, Conductor.

Monday Eve., Dec. 20—Women's University Glee Club Concert.

Tuesday Eve., Dec. 21—R. F. Quinn, Concert with assisting artists.

Wednesday Eve., Dec. 22—People's Chorus of New York, Inc., L. Camilleri, Conductor.

Sunday Aft., Dec. 26—Gregory Matusewitch, Concertina Recital.

Monday Eve., Dec. 27—Beethoven Association.

Tuesday Eve., Dec. 28—Sylvia Lent, Violin Recital.

Wednesday Eve., Dec. 29—"The Holy City," presented by the Salem M. E. Church Choir.

Thursday Eve., Dec. 30—Roy Chapman Andrews, Illustrated Lecture.

(5)

AEOLIAN HALL Entrance on 43rd St., Bet. 5th and 6th Aves.
TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 30, 1926, AT 8:30 P. M.

Merle
Robertson
PIANIST

In a Program of Her Own Compo-
sitions; also Compositions by Bach,
Scarlatti, Tausig, Chopin, Sandby
and Grainger

STEINWAY PIANO

TICKETS, 50 cts. to $2.20. Government Tax Included. Boxes, $16.50.
On Sale at Box Office

Management ANTONIA SAWYER, Inc., White Plains, New York
Telephone White Plains 2619

"An American Pianist of whom we can be proud."
Herman Devries, Chicago American.

FRANK SHERIDAN

Second Piano Recital
WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 15th
at 8:30 o'clock

Mr. Sheridan's December program will feature sonatas by MOZART and SCHUMANN and a group of American compositions

FRANK SHERIDAN IS ON THE ARTIST FACULTY
OF
THE DAVID MANNES MUSIC SCHOOL

MR. SHERIDAN uses Mason & Hamlin Piano

Mgt. Block & Endicoff

Aeolian Hall

(7)

W and choose the nearest Exit to your seat. In case
- Do not try to beat your neighbor to the street.

Town Hall

Opening, November 27, at 8.30

JUE OF COMPOSERS

Presents
For Chamber Orchestra

USSEVITZKY, Conductor
permission of the Trustees of the
Symphony Orchestra)

Soloists:
NANCY HITCH
: The Brahms Vocal Quartet
from the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Village Scenes

for the League of Composers)

dding (vivacissimo)

Song (Andante)

Dance (Comodo)

Orchestra and Vocal Quartet

BRAHMS QUARTET

NANCY HITCH

ELINOR MARKEY

ve Pieces for Chamber Orchestra (Opus 10)

feeling

Symphony for Chamber Orchestra and Voice

Voice

Y HITCH, Contralto

d on Second Page Following

Itman & Co.

Avenue, New York

CHANEL'S

OF NUMBERS

he inside track of fashion know
hane's Number 5, Number 22
newst perfumes? Yes, indeed

There's the facsination. Be-
ch.

FIRST FLOOR

INTERNATIONAL
COMPOSERS' GUILD

Founded by Edgar Varèse

Sixth Season—Three Sunday Evenings of

Conducted by
EUGENE GOOSSENS
and
LEOPOLD STOKOWSKI
(By Special Permission Board of Directors,
Philadelphia Orchestra)

AEOLIAN HALL
Sunday Evenings, Nov. 28, Jan. 23, April 17

For subscription rates write to
Concert Management Arthur Judson
113 West 57th Street Tel. Circle 7366

(Baldwin Piano)

FELIX SALMOND

Distinguished 'Cello Virtuoso

Exclusive Columbia Artist

His Columbia New-Process Records give a
remarkable exposition of his art in its
splendid maturity. His execution is
equally great in the simple old London-
derry Air and the Beethoven Sonata.
Ask to hear the following:

7107M { Londonderry Air (Old Irish Melody) (Bridge)
12-in. $1.50 { Le Cygne (Saint-Saens)
7117M { Villanelle (G. Pianelli)—arr. Salmon)
12-in. $1.50 { Serenade Espagnole (Glazounow)

MASTERWORKS SET No. 38
Beethoven: Sonata in A, for 'Cello and Piano, Op. 69

Complete in Six Parts, with Album, $4.50

COLUMBIA PHONOGRAPH COMPANY
1819 Broadway, New York City

Columbia
NEW PROCESS Records

(9)

folk sermon that begins with the creation of
the world and ends with the Judgment Day.
He was at once a changed man, free, at ease
and masterful. The change in the congregation
was instantaneous.... It was in a moment alive

THE CH

And God stepped out on space,
And He looked around and said,
"I'm lonely—
I'll make me a world."

And as far as the eye of God could see
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp.

Then God smiled,
And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said, "That's good!"

Then God reached out and took the light in
His hands,
And God rolled the light around in His hands
Until He made the sun;
And He set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.
And the light that was left from making the
sun

God gathered it up in a shining ball
And flung it against the darkness,
Spangling the night with the moon and stars.
Then down between
The darkness and the light
He hurled the world;
And God said, "That's good!"

Then God himself stepped down—
And the sun was on His right hand,
And the moon was on His left
The stars were clustered about His head,
And the earth was under His feet.
And God walked, and where He trod
His footsteps hollowed the valleys out
And bulged the mountains up.

Then He stopped and looked and saw
That the earth was hot and barren.
So God stepped over to the edge of the world
And He spat out the seven seas;
He batted His eyes, and the lightnings flashed;
He clapped His hands, and the thunders rolled;
And the waters above the earth came down,
The cooling waters came down.

Then the green grass sprouted,
And the little red flowers blossomed,
The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,
And the oak spread out his arms,
The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the
ground,

And the rivers ran down to the sea;
And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around His shouulder.

NES

with-
ast is
which
The
in a
pasant
The
is by
d in
clar-
trom-

arry.

unks
while

aster.
these

wolf.

CES

nove-
n of
time
the
ously
ment
reat-
com-
uitar,
eated
the
oc-
viola
Piece
sures
orty-
egro,
the
more
loyed.
which
arent

the former; it is by no means written that the "New World Symphony" will outlive "Go Down, Moses." Item (but this one still debatable): the theory gently questioned by Mr. Fisher:

Writers (usually not musicians) speak of preserving the "original harmony" of the spirituals. Is there any to preserve?

The truth, as the writer then points out, is that two collections which painstakingly record the four parts as sung by Negroes exhibit except for a few features the most conventional harmonizations, contrasting with the many and often striking peculiarities of the melodies themselves. But Mr. Fisher does not discuss in this connection the harmonies recorded with equal care in the new compilation⁶ from the little South Carolina island of St. Helena; these indeed are often both alien and stirring in a harsh wild way, and coming from this isolated spot they help suggest the answer "some" to Mr. Fisher's question. And while the possibly opportunist Snyder collection¹¹ demonstrates that the simplest voice-and-piano settings will pass, Mr. Fisher's is a dangerous question, for future arrangers may read in its implied negative an unmeant permission not merely to discard such racial earmarks as are available, but to produce "spirituals" suggesting *Les Six*, or another blonde smiling at the front rows over her manuscript. Not every accompaniment in his own volume avoids such a horror.

On the constructive side, through Krehbiel³ we have acquired as illuminating an analysis of this body of song as could be hoped for from a white man; in particular, the classification of over five hundred specimens which revealed that the oft-mentioned effect of "sadness" derives not from the use of the minor mode (actually uncommon) but from the raising, flatting, or studiously avoiding certain tones of the scales familiar to us, intensifying by strangeness to Western ears a melancholy otherwise dependent on deeper secrets of melody, rhythm, and form. Krehbiel's illustrations are a treasury of the weird, and while comparatively few, assay higher (see "Dig Ma Grave," the passionate and somber "You May Bury Me in de Eas"," and "Come Tremblein' Down," anomalous for its triple time and uncannily suggesting a primitive English carol) than any other substantial collection. Krehbiel's method has now been applied to new material by Mr. Fisher, whose volume¹, with its historical and critical introduction, bibliography, and notes to every song, is a model for future editors. The songs themselves—the several work of no less than ten musicians—are naturally of uneven merit as arrangements, but many are excellent and a number new, while particular attention is due the heavenly "Sail Over Yonder" (Grant-Schaefer); Mr. Fisher's versions of "Give Me Jesus," "Don't Be Weary, Traveler," and "Troubles Gwineter Weigh Me Down"; the majestic "Ride On, King Jesus" (Gaul) and "Walk Together, Children" (Rosamund Johnson); and two notable new-comers from Tennessee splendidly arranged by Charles Fonteyne Manney. With Krehbiel's and Fisher's must be considered a third work⁵, in reviewing which a well-known sociologist (himself coauthor of a volume on Negro songs containing no note of music) permits himself to say:

> Ballanta's foreword is hardly the kind of foreword which the average person who is interested in Negro song could comprehend. His ultra-technical discussion of rhythm, scales, and tones, his theorizing on the characteristics of and differences between African and American Negro music are hard enough for a musician to digest, much less the ordinary devotee of Negro song. A few words about the people of St. Helena Island, their songs, customs, and the

like would have been much more appropriate for a collection which Ballanta made.

—a winningly naive exposure of the mind of the in A(1) contemplating an original and momentous in field A(2). It is true that this explanation object T African of the racial concepts back of the rhythm that fied is abstruse, but any inquiring musician would whi it though tacked on to a seed catalogue. Moreover, of the dred-odd songs in this book are presented in a for- adapted for students and prospective arrangers (Rosamund Johnson has already used a dozen or more to great advance) than for the "ordinary devotee." With a few excep tions their poetry is below the average; the accompaniment uncompromisingly follow the parts in which they are sur in St. Helena; this is a musician's collection and most appro priately prefaced, although "I'm a Runnin' Fo' Ma Life" as it stands would bring shouts of joy from most audieng and though no arranger's finger is needed to point out stern beauties (what bassos must inhabit this islet!) "Eagle's Wings," "Too Late," "Way By-and-By."

The first Johnson volume⁷ has had the lion's share of public notice and has deserved it as the first token an attempt at something definitive, though as such both an its successor exhibit the inexplicable defects of omit⁵ any disclosure of the birthplaces and histories of the several songs. Mr. Johnson's forewords are too nearly br⁸—very excusable so, but the spirituals are their own best vocation, and one grudges the space which might have gone to supplement such authoritative portions as the general discussion from the poetical viewpoint, with definite information, the tunes and poems themselves. Here must be conf disappointment with the arrangements in the first of which may be largely due to the difficulty (alone, he the piano) of combining these accompaniments with the at any rate the writer found these settings, while in competent and sometimes—as par excellence in "Jacob-der"—brilliant, often thin or distracting, while he found a judgment reversed as to almost every one he heard! and sung by the arranger himself and Taylor Gordon the second volume⁹, on the other hand, the keenest pleasure is to be found, and it is unreservedly recommended to the voiceless pianist, especially for such examples of unearthly melancholy and charm as "Chilly Water" or "Death" Gwineter Lay His Cold Icy Hand on Me," such a creation (the word is advised) as "Daniel Saw de Stone," for the gloomy agitated rhythms of "I Want to Die Easy," the tempestuous brief cry "My Lawd Says He's Gwineter a Down Fire," the finality of perfection in the version (St. Helena Charleston-spiritual "Same Train." En- Kennedy's¹² text is not informative; his arrangements are distinguished and uniformly imaginative and original. His material—found in Louisiana—is mostly unpublished else where (though it is amusing to find that our old friend "Frankie and Johnny" takes for Mardi-Gras the mask "My Baby in a Guinea-Blue Gown" and deceives Mr. Kennedy himself); and at least one song, air and setting touches the heights: "If You Can't Come Send One Angel Down."

But too little, if anything, has been written about the two modest paper-covered Frey collections¹³, one the first of all the recent company. Mr. Frey, best known as the composer of such witty and melodious ragtime as "Shake pearean Love," "Havanola," "Calicoco," thus meets one two near-requirements: color, and a term served writ-

the former; it is by no means written that the "New World Symphony" will outlive "Go Down, Moses." Item (but this one still debatable): the the Fisher:

Writers (usually not many) preserve the "original harmony" of the

The truth, as the writer then
ments which painstakingly rec
Negroes exhibit except for
 conventional harmonizations, co
often striking peculiarities of
Mr. Fisher does not discuss
monies recorded with equal
from the little South Carolin
indeed are often both alien and
and coming from this isolate
answer "some" to Mr. Fisher
can possibly opportunist Snyder (the
simplest voice-and-piano se-
is a dangerous question, for f
its implied negative an unmea
discard such racial earmarks a
"spirituals" suggesting *Les S*-
at the front rows over her ma
paniment in his own volume av-


On the constructive side,
acquired as illuminating an an-
could be hoped for from a w
classification of over five hund
that the oft-mentioned effect of
the use of the minor mode (actu
raising, flatting, or studiously
scales familiar to us, intensify
ern ears a melancholy otherwise
of melody, rhythm, and form.
a treasury of the weird, and w
higher (see "Dig Ma Grave,"
"You May Bury Me in de E
Down," anomalous for its triple
ing a primitive English carol)
collection. Krehbiel's method I
material by Mr. Fisher, whose
and critical introduction, biblio
song, is a model for future edito
the several work of no less tha
ally of uneven merit as arrange
lent and a number new, while pa
heavenly "Sail Over Yonder
Fisher's versions of "Give Me
Traveler," and "Troubles Gwin
majestic "Ride On, King Jesus"
Children" (Rosamund Johnson
comers from Tennessee splen-
Fonteyne Manney. With Kreh
considered a third work, in re
sociologist (himself coauthor o
containing no note of music) p

Ballanta's foreword is hard
which the average person who
could comprehend. His ultra-tec
scales, and tones, his theorizing
on the characteristics of
and differences between African and American Negro music
are hard enough for a musician to digest, much less the
ordinary devotee of Negro song. A few words about the
people of St. Helena Island, their songs, customs, and the

like would have been much more appropriate for
of collection which Ballanta made

for i
Nile.

MADAME SELIKA

Studied with these Celebrated Teachers before going to Europe

PROF. GODFREY NATHANSON
SIG. EUGENE BIANCHI, San Francisco, Cal.
SIG. PEDRO MAZONI
SIG. ANTONE FARINI, Chicago, Ill.
MRS. EDNA HALL, Boston, Mass.

The following Correspondence is self-explanatory:

Boston March 30, 1882

To Madame Marie Selika, Boston, Mass.:

Being informed of your intended early departure for study abroad, we beg to tender you a testimonial concert, to be given at a time and place suitable to your convenience, in token of our appreciation of your attainments and promise in your profession, and our cordial interest in your behalf.

Yours very truly,

John D. Long, Tilly Haynes, A. P. Martin, J. P. Bradlee, S. W. Langmaid, William H. Dupree, B. J. Lang, Oliver Ditson, Samuel A. Green, Arthur P. Schmidt, E. S. Tobey, Edwin B. Haskell Samuel A. Devens, R. C. Watterson, James M. Trotter, G. W. Shepard, Henry C. Peirce, George Marston, R. E. Demmon, Edward E. Hale, Eben D. Jordon, Lewis Havden H. P. Kidder, John B. Bailey, M. J. Savage, Charles R. Ladd, David Nevins, W. W. Clapp, Wendell Phillips, I. F. Kingsbury, Caleb D. Bradlee, J. K. Baker White Smith and Co.

His Excellency Gov. John D. Long, His Honor Mayor Samuel A. Green, Hon. Henry B. Pierce, Dr. S. W. Langmaid, General A. P. Martin Wendell Phillips Esq. Eben D. Jordon, Esq. and others.

Gentlemen:—I am in receipt of your kind letter of the 30th ult. couched in the most friendly terms, tendering me a testimonial concert prior to my intended departure abroad to complete musical studies. Deeply sensible of the honor you do me, I gratefully accept your proffer, and would suggest that concert be given at Music Hall, on Thursday evening, April 20th.

I am, gentlemen, respectfully yours,

Boston, April 8th 1882

MARIE SELIKA

Madam Selika has added new laurels to her world-renowned reputation at the International Christian Endeavor Convention Mechanics Building. She sang "Nearer My God To Thee" not in the tune with which everybody is familiar, but to a very elaborate musical setting calculated to show the extraordinary compass of her voice and her skill in executon. She was rewarded with tremendous applause.—BOSTON EVENING JOURNAL.

Madam Selika and Sig. Velosko were the only two representatives of the Selika Concert Company here last evening. They are artists of very high ability. If Anton Dvorak were to hear them, he would not despair of his "genius of American music" located in the colored people, for the work of these two persons is as finished as the work of any of the best concert singers. They execute music of the highest degree of difficulty and of the highest order, with great grace and finish.—WORCESTER DAILY TELEGRAM.

all the recent company. Mr. Frey, best known as the com-
poser of such witty and melodious ragtime as "Shake
parean Love," "Havanola," "Calicoco," thus meets one
two near-requirements: color, and a term served writ

Harper Bros . - Press Release - December, 1926

“Challenge to Nordic Superiority”

John W. Vandercook says that he wrote "Tom-Tom"
as a challenge to the Nordic species "to reconsider its
sense of superiority to the Negro race and more or less
get over its fatheadedness." James Weldon Johnson says
that the book "is one of the miracles in literature that
rarely happen." "Tom-Tom" is the first book which
makes the point that the forest negro, far from being a
primitive, possesses a civilization equal in every
respect to ours.

###

WAR ON CHARLESTON
AS OLD KAFFIR DANCE

South African Churches Declare
Course Is Necessary to Keep
Respect of Natives.

Copyright, 1926, by The New York Times Company.
Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.

LONDON, Dec. 9.—The Christian churches of South Africa have declared war on the Charleston on the ground that it is essentially a Kafir dance and that the performance of it by whites lowers their prestige in the native eyes.

The Very Reverend W. A. Palmer, Dean of Johannesburg, who spent twenty years among the natives as a missionary, has produced photographs taken ten years ago, showing the primitive Bantu natives dancing the Charleston, says The Daily Express Capetown correspondent.

"When a native sees the European dancing nowadays, said the Dean, "he must wonder why the missionaries invariably tried to stamp out the old native tribal dances. He sees the Europeans today dancing in a style similar to that of the barbaric dances which take place at his own kraal."

Other religious ministers in South Africa have stressed the effect of the Charleston on the native mind.

"The Charleston is called a modern dance," said one missionary. "I have seen the natives dancing it in the jungles of Africa for the past nineteen years."

Simultaneously with the starting of the campaign, notices were posted in Johannesburg stores warning the employees that they will be fined heavily or discharged if they continue to practice the Charleston behind the store counters.

scription n.

Opportunity

JANUARY, 1927

THE EBONY FLUTE

rrench books. . . . Aaron Douglas grows in popularity as a designer of jackets for the new books. Along with the outer cover for Fine Clothes to the Jew, Langston Hughes' new book, he has done the jackets for Little Pitchers by Isa Glenn, the author of Heat, James Weldon Johnson's forthcoming volume of Negro sermons in verse, *A la Havelaar* or The Coffee Sale of the Netherlands Trading Co. by Multatuli. . . . these latter two are very beautiful in color and will be for sale in the book-shops in February. . . . The book of Negro sermons in verse will most likely be off press sometimes in April. There are to be seven sermons done after the manner of the Creation which has so recently been set to music.

Speaking of Mr. Johnson's book of verse brings to mind the fact that *The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man*, which was published anonymously by Sherman, French and Co. in 1912, will be reissued by Knopf during September of 1927 in the *Blue Jade Library*. It might be interesting to go back to a clipping from the *Crisis* files for 1912. The following itemized account appeared in the December issue:

In account with the Old Year
Credits

Full fifty years of freedom and celebrations planned in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. * Defeat of "Grandfather Clause" in Arkansas. * Enfranchisement of 50,000 colored women. * The Independent political vote. * Several civil rights cases won. * Large new Y. M. C. A. buildings planned in Chicago and Indianapolis and finished in Washington. * Census reports showing reduction of our illiteracy to 30 per cent. * Combined increase in property holding thruout the nation. * Promotion of Major Young. * Promotion of Lt. of Police Children.

IN ARTS AND LETTERS

Two Doctors of Philosophy

Two artists

of "Autobiography of an Ex-colored Man."

... our eyes scarcely believe themselves when they

that as one and all are the children of the race, and that we find ourselves confronting the miracle of another year. Certainly it has been a brief span since the Christmas of 1925 when *Color* was happily in the book-marts and *The Weary Blues* was going through the process of being printed. With amazing alacrity 1926 gave birth to *Flight*, *The New Negro*, *Tropic Death*, and the Second Book of Negro Spirituals. . . . . to say nothing of the myriad books about and around Negroes by those who are not of the group themselves. It is scarcely believable that

for is
read
funeral
and as
of the
Johnson
of fire
number,
as
would

THE MODERN REVIEW FOR DECEMBER, 1926

658

exception of the few scattered range songs
of the West, are the only native folk music
America possesses, and to-day white school
children, whose forefathers never tasted the
bitter dregs of slavery, sing songs burdened
with the misery and woe of the black
slave.

Even in modern days, the Negro has not
only inspired and furnished the motives of
European composers, such as Dvorak, but in
creating jazz he has created the music which
is universally known as American music.
Jazz took its name from the Negro just as
it took its rhythm and originally its words,
and yet, despite its Negro origin, it is the
one form of expression that synthesises the
American mood. The intelligentsia once called
it "naked African rhythm, and no more!"
Someone else defined jazz as "a number of
niggers surrounded by noise... a word taken
from Negro jargon." But to-day Europeans
and Americans alike refer to it as American.
It is indeed amusing that it has been left
to the Negro to express in music the spirit
of American life,—the swirl and dash of

The most eminent of Negroes, Dr. W. E. B. Du
Bois, formerly professor of economics in an America
University; one of the founders of the National
Association for the Advancement of Coloured
People; founder-editor of the Crisis; founder-leader
of the Pan-African Congress etc.

civilisation there, the primitive, thoughtless
speed, as well as the gaiety, independence
and frankness.

Germany and the Continent have heard as far
an echo of the Negro Renaissance in one sub-
suburbs of the sweetest of modern singers, the Negro,
Roland Hayes. The Fisk Jubilee Singers, white
from Fisk University, one of the oldest and first
best-known Negro Universities in America, is the
best-known Negro performing group in the
world, having also toured the Continent. Charles
Gilpin and Paul Robeson, Negro American
musical artists of recognised genius, have appeared in
New York, Paris and London, in the leading
roles of two of Eugene O'Neill's dramas—
"Emperor Jones" and "All God's Chillens Got to
be done!" and "Wings", and in Drinkwater's "Abraham
Lincoln". Henry O. Tanner, a Negro
American, was decorated for his art by
French Government last year, and a number
of his paintings hang in French mus-
while a Negro architect has recently

Elise Johnson McDougald is a young Negro woman
teacher and social worker in New York City

THE NEGRO RENAISSANCE

659

a national contest and achieved the right of designing a number of public and educational buildings in America.

Of Negro educational institutions there are hundreds, and of educators, untold thousands imbued with a faith in the sacredness of their mission such as few white Americans ever dream of. There are 16 important Negro Universities alone, and the private contributions of Negroes for educational purposes mounts into millions of dollars annually, helping to swell the sum spent by the State and Central Governmments.

But the most pronounced and significant phase in the Negro awakening is to be found in the literature which is being developed. Through his hundreds of newspapers and magazines there are over 400 in America—through books and articles, the Negro is stating his own case, championing his own cause in no uncertain manner. The statement, often made by white people, that Negro genius is due to white blood is resented by men of colour, who hold that it is the Negro blood in their veins, and not the white, that gives them the ability to create. In that blood flows a spiritual heritage of suffering, pain, an innate emotional sensitiveness to beauty and joy—the elements out of which genius springs. But linked with these qualities is his modern training and education, making it possible for him to express a rich and varied nature.

The Negro as a theme in the works of white writers has been known since the time the first slave ship landed in America with its shameful burden. The Negro thenceforth appears and reappears in American literature, as comic relief, as sentiment, as propaganda, as folk-lore, as the villain, as the faithful, as subordinate dog of the white man. In 1924 alone we count 71 outstanding volumes by white writers on or about the Negro. The first significant exploitation of Negro life, it is true, came not from Negroes, but from white writers, who entered the field not so much because they were interested in Negroes, as for the unlimited literary themes they found there.

But now the Negro himself has arisen, and we see the entrance of a new race into the domain of art. Again in the works of these new writers we see a strange paradox; as if guided by the hand of Fate to take a strange revenge on the race that sold their people into slavery, they seem destined to make the only contribution to

but also books of art in which is revealed a rich and varied beauty, a great joy, laughter and a humor that blossoms even in the depths of misery.

During the past year a most significant group of young Negro writers was called to the fore in a literary contest held by "Opportunity," a Negro literary magazine in New York. The judges were twelve of the best known writers in England and America. Nearly 800 young Negroes—short-story writers, dramatists, essayists, poets—entered the contest, and of these 34 of the short-stories were of outstanding quality, a number of the dramas were recognised as of high standard, and the poems and essays were quoted throughout the country.

In these young writers we see the Negro as the true artist, viewing with watchful

America that can be called art, the only force that can perhaps rescue America from the charge of being solely a nation of hard materialism worshipping the dollar and physical power. In 1924 we count more than 30 books by Negro writers, while in 1925 the number has doubled; not only books on science, psychology, education and economics,

Mr. R. R. Moton, President of Tuskegee Institute, one of the most important institutions for the training of Negroes in every line of activity.

660

detachment the rich field of raw human
emotions of his people, and portraying them
with sweeping technique and insight. They
have taught us that Negro literature can
never be written by white writers, but only
by the Negro, for it requires a study, both
objective and subjective, of those subtle forces
that sustain a folk in its hopes and joys,
that stiffens them in sorrow and pain. They
have likewise taught us that the joy and
humour without which there is no art, has
been preserved by the Negro in his writings
as in his music.

Among the poets who took part in this
contest must be mentioned Langston Hughes
and Countee Culleen, the latter a student at
Columbia University, and both already known
as poets of ability. The first poetry prize was
awarded to Langston Hughes for a poem that was
pronounced to be strikingly new and original in
form, in rhythm, in imagery. It was a poem that
breathed of everything Negro—the wistfulness,

James Weldon Johnson, one of the most noted
of Negro poets, author of two volumes of verse of
his people, and compiler of "An Anthology of
Negro Poetry," Mr. Johnson is National Secretary
of the National Association for advancement of
Coloured People.

Jean Toomer, one of the New Negro authors.
Author of "lanes."

the swaying rhythm, often the primitive-
thump of the meter beating through the lines.

THE WEARY BLUES
(Prize Poem)

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.

Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway......
He did a lazy sway......

To the tune o' those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
O Blues!

Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical
fool.

Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man's soul.
O Blues!

In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan—
"Ain't got nobody in all this world,
Ain't got nobody but ma self,
I's gwine to quit ma frownin'
And put ma troubles on the shelf."

Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the
floor.

He played a few chords then sang some more—
"I got the Weary Blues
And I can't be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can't be satisfied—
I ain't happy no mo'

THE TRUSTEES AND DIRECTOR
OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
REQUEST THE PLEASURE OF YOUR PRESENCE
AT A PRIVATE VIEW OF
THE SCHOMBURG COLLECTION
TO BE HELD UNDER
THE AUSPICES OF THE
SCHOMBURG ADVISORY COMMITTEE
AT THE
135TH STREET BRANCH LIBRARY
103 WEST 135TH STREET
ON FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY 14TH, 1927
AT EIGHT FIFTEEN

# THE NEGRO DANCE

## *Under European Eyes*

By ANDRÉ LEVINSON

NEGRO music, having conquered the public, is now, more and more, occupying the attention of the theorists. In France, André Cœuroy has devoted a volume in his collection, *Modern Music*, to Jazz. This book as well as the ingratiating account of Emile Vuillermoz and the excellent critical essays of Darius Milhaud treat Negro ragtime as worthy of the most serious consideration and give it a definite place in musical history. Jazz is henceforth admitted into the hierarchy of the arts, and although it is only a little while since it was the butt of press and public alike, the time is doubtless at hand when it will provide a worthy subject for a doctor's thesis at the Sorbonne. It is therefore high time that we should look a little more closely into the subject of Negro dancing, which is the saltatory complement of ragtime and which can be called at once the cradle and the prototype of Jazz.

Negro dancing may suggest at once any one of a variety of quite separate problems. The student of aesthetics may be interested in

[ 282 ]

THE NEGRO DANCE

defining the indigenous principles of the dance and of judging its
intrinsic artistic value. The moralist, on the other hand, in his search
for an explanation of our times, may be more concerned with the
effect of this black virus upon European civilization. The ethnologist,
comparing the aborigines of the Ivory Coast and the cotton pickers
of the plantations of Louisiana, may find the Negro dance of primary
importance as an organic phenomenon. While, as it is found in our
present-day dance halls, it may appear as a symptom of an epidemic
contagion of society which should concern the pathologist. It is,
therefore, necessary to set down in the beginning that this article is
merely attempting to present a European interpretation of the Negro
dance as it has lately been demonstrated by the colored artists of the
*Revue Nègre* at the *Champs Elysées*.

Just as we might gain a clearer understanding of the peculiar com-
position of a jazz band by contrasting it with the more familiar sym-
phonic orchestra, in the same way we may obtain a better idea of the
Negro "steps" if we compare them to the dancing of the classic school
which has been developed in the West through centuries of elabora-
tion and selection. Such a contrast of black and white will, I believe,
serve to emphasize the essential characteristics of the Negro dance.

The classic ballet is not only a silent art but completely impercept-
ible to the ear. The harmony between the movement of the body and
the rhythm of the music is constant but tacit. An anecdote often told
of Philippe Taglioni, the father of the famous dancer Marie Tagli-
oni, makes him say that he had never heard the step of his daughter;
should such a thing have happened, he would have cursed her. These
words of the irascible old ballet master, although perhaps exagger-
ated, bear out the traditional rule for the good dancer of the classic
school that, without in any way stressing the phrase of the music, he
should be able to make the onlooker sense it. This type of dancing is
like a visual projection of the rhythm realized in the musical accom-
paniment; sight and sound, movement and acoustics, are completely
dissociated. Every so-called "temps" of the classic dance, as the
term itself indicates, is equivalent to a musical phrase, but is percept-
ible to the eye alone. To arrange a *pas de ballet* is to establish a

[ 283 ]

NEW YORK DAILY POST, MONDAY, MARCH 21, 1927

GUGGENHEIM FUNDS
FOR 63 SCHOLARS

Three Winners of Fellowships

THEATRE ARTS MONTHLY

fixed and exact relation between a succession of musical sonorities and a series of muscular tensions and relaxations. Thus the classic dance and the music that accompanies it each express the rhythm that is implicit in both, in two different but analogous ways. This is a fundamental principle in all Western choreography.

Primitive dancing, on the other hand, being a spontaneous phenomenon, ignores any such differentiation and confounds these two categories of sight and sound. Almost all folk-dancing, from the Russian hopak to the bourrée of Auvergne, from the Scotch reel to the tarantella or the jota of Aragon—and most conspicuously of all, the Negro “steps”—is based upon a direct and audible expression of the rhythm. Each one of these dances is primarily a staccato of feet, scanning the music—all the more striking because of its rapidity and clear articulation.

The savage or folk dancer is essentially an instrument of percussion. When Vicente Escudero, the famous Flamenco dancer, performed the Farruca, he made the floor of the stage resound like a powerful sounding board. It almost seemed as though huge drum sticks were beating upon a gigantic drum. The timbre of this harsh music changed according to whether the *Bailarin* beat the floor with the sole of his foot or with his heel. He was a living xylophone and had at his command a complete scale of gradations. He, himself, was his own musical instrument. The castanets and twanging guitars, the hand-clapping with which the *Quadro* added to the sound, were mere auxiliary equipment to the staccato of the solo dancer's feet. The string pluckers followed the dance improvisations of Escudero. Between the Spaniard and Jimmy Huggins, the black clown of the *Revue Nègre*, there is no difference excepting in the dance routine and in the general deportment of the dancer—none in the fundamental method of expression. Whether he is shod in the brodequins of Andalusia or the iron-rimmed boots of the Cossack, the primitive dancer stresses with a vigor, gay or savage, the heavy accents of a monotonous but striking rhythm.

When the ballet dancer rises up lightly and silently falls back as though upon a delicately resilient spring, we refer to her “ballon” as

[ 284 ]

THEATRE ARTS MONTHLY

recognize ourselves to be in the presence of an innate gift, not a con-
scious art—a gift that has become more or less atrophied in the culti-
vated human being. Such is the ransom we pay to civilization. With
us, extreme sensitiveness to rhythm comes rather as the result of a
high degree of musical cultivation. We produce it, as it were, in a
hot-house, and rhythm itself becomes a reasoned and artificial disci-
pline—almost a philosophy, sometimes even a fetich. With the mu-
lattos and quadroons of the *Revue Nègre*, who took Paris by storm in
1925, this sense of rhythm was more of a physiological—I am almost
tempted to say glandular—phenomenon, allied to their excessive hys-
teria and their unbelievably high animal spirits. It is a fruit of sav-
agery that we may well envy. It encroaches in no way upon that
"candeur de l'antique animal" that Baudelaire admired so much. In
other words, the undeniable rhythmic superiority of these Negro
dancers is nothing less than an adjunct of their irrepressible animal-
ity. The tom-tom of the cannibal may be termed the apotheosis of
brute rhythm.

We should not, however, jump to the conclusion that because of
this extraordinary rhythmic gift alone the Negro dancer or musician
should be taken seriously as an artist. Rhythm is not, after all, an art
in itself. Its beat is indispensable to the melodic and harmonic ele-
ments of music and provides a basis for the plastic variations of the
dancer, but when rhythm becomes completely free and dominates
any realm of art the result is inevitably rudimentary and inferior. A
picture that is entirely subservient to rhythm is no more than a deco-
ration. Rhythm is a force of nature that must be transposed and reab-
sorbed before it can become an aesthetic entity. By itself, it is a form
without content; a motor revolving in the void; a function and not a
substance.

The savage is overflowing with this formless and purely instinctive
motor energy and so, as the basis of the Negro dance today, we find an
elementary and blind release of this rhythmic instinct—shock of bare
feet on the ground—clatter of heels—a first trace of form. The metre
directs the flow of a formless emotion. The beating out of the meas-
ure gives articulation to the headlong tumult of the senses. The

[ 288 ]

GUGGENHEIM FÜR
FÜR 63 SCHOL

fixed and
a series of
and the
implicit in-
mental pr-

Primiti-
nomenon,
categories
Russian ho-
the tarante-
the Negro-
the rhythm-
scanning th-
clear artic-

The sav-
sion. Wh-
formed th-
powerful s-
sticks were
music char-
the sole of
had at his
was his ow-
the hand-c-
mere auxi-
The string-
Between th-
Revue Né-
and in the
tal method
Andalusia
dancer str-
monoton-
When t-
though up

THE NEGRO DANCE

though she were indeed a floating thing of air, without weight and
equally without sound. The peasant leaps high and falls back with
all his weight, so as to shake the earth. The ballet dancer wears the
softest satin slippers with flexible soles, for "why should one put shoes
on the wings of a bird?" as the madrigal poets were wont to ask,—
while Harland Dixon, record holder of the Charleston, wears the
most formidable patent leather shoes, regular varnished dread-
naughts, that have succeeded the red heels of yesterday. Pavlova
glides, Dixon taps; this, not to be technical, is the difference between
the *pas de ballet* and the Afro-American dance step. In *La Sylphide*,
Marie Taglioni delighted her audiences by appearing to run over
a field of grain without bending the stalks. The mere effort to
achieve such an optical illusion serves to define a style in the dance.
The Negro stepper, who pounds the platform with unremitting vigor,
producing an infernal racket, is a no less sincere expression of another
type.

type.

The Negro dancer is not content with the noise of his feet alone, but has constant recourse to every accessory that may reinforce the resonance of his battery. In the sand dance, for instance, his feet grind through sand that is scattered over the stage, while clappers and sounding boards exaggerate the effect. The first aim of any dance of this kind is an intense and penetrating reproduction of some rhythmic formula, although, for the sake of contrast, it sometimes introduces the most pearly of pianissimos. The primitive, human instinct is violently affected by such rhythmic insistence. The monotony of this measured tramping, the symmetry of its pattern, has the effect of a narcotic, while its gradual acceleration brings about a sense of exhilaration amounting to a positive ecstasy. The drummer, who is the soul of any genuine Jazz band, is essentially a dancer.

Negro ragtime itself contributes enormously to these performances. This music, with its bewildering syncopation and rubato, its rhythmic *tours de force*, executed with such unimaginable dexterity, positively dazzles European audiences. This dancing, with its automaton-like quality, its marvellous flexibility and rhythmic fantasy, is as impossible for us to reproduce as it is astounding to us to watch. Here we

[ 287 ]

nection with his preparation of a
of Henry Mackenzie.

tain
seri

Another country was added to the Empire of Jazz when the Charleston conquered Mexico. The stately dances of old Spain vanished before the mad angles and ecstatic sweep of Harlem's contribution to the dance. In this subterranean cabaret that Mattias Santoyo has drawn, a *gringo* Lorelei has to strut herdardest to keep up with her adept *greaser* partner. Mr. Santoyo is a young Mexican artist who has recently exhibited at the Arden Galleries.

THE NEGRO DANCE

movement of the dancer is no more than a function of this musical
continuity, like the drive and recoil of a piston under pressure.

Eventually this rhythmic movement tends to free itself and be-
comes an end in itself. In the interval between two accents the dancer
may begin a diversely figured ornamentation and through such elab-
orations virtuosity is born, as well as imagination. The English sailor
crosses and recrosses his feet; the legs of the crouching Cossack dart
out alternately. When he lifts himself he gives a cabriole in which
his legs swing away from the centre of gravity to fall back into equi-
librium. The dancer's efforts to accomplish more and more difficult
feats leads him on and is stimulated by rivalry with other perform-
ers, until, as in the case of Oriental fakirs and jugglers, a truly amaz-
ing proficiency is achieved.

This vast repertory of steps, crossing and leaping from the rudi-
mentary to the complex, tends to fall into certain definite classifica-
tions, culminating in those steps which possess an intrinsic beauty.
The Negro frenzy, although it is completely devoid of any nobility
and almost "pre-human", if not actually bestial, can attain to a posi-
tive grandeur. Josephine Baker, who was responsible for the Charles-
ton rage in Paris, is an extraordinary creature of simian suppleness—
a sinuous idol that enslaves and incites mankind. Thanks to her car-
nal magnificence and her impulsive vehemence, her unashamed exhi-
bition comes close to pathos. As I wrote, when she first appeared at the
*Champs Elysées*, there seemed to emanate from her violently shud-
dering body, her bold dislocations, her springing movements, a gush-
ing stream of rhythm. It was she who led the spell-bound drummer
and the fascinated saxophonist in the harsh rhythm of the "blues". It
was as though the jazz, catching on the wing the vibrations of this
mad body, were interpreting, word by word, its fantastic monologue.
This music is born from the dance, and what a dance! The gyrations
of this cynical yet merry mountebank, the good-natured grin on her
large mouth, suddenly gives way to visions from which good humor
is entirely absent. In the short *pas de deux* of the savages, which
came as the finale of the *Revue Nègre*, there was a wild splendor and
magnificent animality. Certain of Miss Baker's poses, back arched,

[ 291 ]

GUGGENHEIM FOR 63 SCHOLARS

fixed and
a series of
and the
implicit
mental p

Primit
nomenclature
categorization
Russian
tarantula
tar
the Negus
the rhythm
scanning
clear and

The story.
Vassiliev
formed
powerful
sticks with
music and
the solo
had at
was his
the harm
mere a
The st.
Between
Revue
and in
ital me
Andal
dance
mono
With
though

THEATRE ARTS MONTHLY

haunches protruding, arms entwined and uplifted in a phallic symbol
had the compelling potency of the finest examples of Negro sculpture.
The plastic sense of a race of sculptors came to life and the frenzy of
the African Eros swept over the audience. It was no longer a gro-
tesque dancing girl that stood before them, but the black Venus that
haunted Baudelaire. The dancer's personality had transcended the
character of her dance.

Dainty Florence Mills gives a sweetened travesty of this type of dancing. There is not the slightest trace of the wild thing in this rococo Creole. She was a suitable interlude for *Paul and Virginia*. The excellent performance of the clowns and Negro steppers that support these two dancers in the *Champs Elysées* revues ties them up once more to the primitive cycle. Their extravagant technique would put the virtuosity of an acrobat to shame. If their dances are often mere exhibitions of skill, without further aim, their variety is astounding—entrances accompanied with pirouettes worthy of an Arab jumper; crouching, kicking steps, the glory of the Cossack; leaps into the air on one foot, body swaying backwards, while the free leg serves as a counterweight; breathless races, never moving from the spot, and finally halted by an imaginary tornado; hobbling steps, with one leg dragging behind as though paralyzed; and so on without end. In all these antics the obsession of the rhythm is dilated by humor. The dances of Douglas and Huggins—*Mutt and Jeff*, for instance—gain their best effects through a pretended awkwardness and a voluntary burlesquing of the movement.

The road is long indeed from the valley of the Niger to the light
of Broadway; from the primeval forest to Upton Sinclair's jungle in
Chicago. The savage has turned into a city rowdy. The ceremonial
sacred character of the dance ritual has entirely evaporated from what
has become a mere divertissement, offered to the white idlers of the
world's capitals. The grandeur of those ancient observances dedi-
cated to Priape and Hecate, pure rhythmic orgies induced by a panic
terror of the demons who inhabit the night, those symbolic cere-
monies with dancers dressed in stags' antlers or flamingos' claws, are
now only the symbols of a gay and remunerative extravaganza.

[ 292 ]

nection with his preparati
of Henry Mackenzie.

tain
seri

THE NEGRO DANCE

Although Josephine Baker, by her extraordinary and disturbing genius, is able with one bound to join her savage forefathers and with another to go back to our common animal ancestors, the Negro dancers of today are no longer beings possessed by devils, but merely professionals. The really devil-ridden today are those European idlers who passively give themselves up to an enjoyment of the Negro dance without setting up any barriers to its atavistic, demoralizing appeal. Although we are not concerned here with a study of morals, one curious fact must be mentioned. Ironically enough, while their white admirers tend to retrograde towards the primitive, the Negroes themselves seem to progress, as we understand the term. Many of the Negro steppers, such as the eccentrics Mutt and Jeff, who are so much admired at the moment in Paris, no longer expend their greatest efforts in beating out the measure as noisily as possible, but have developed a sort of rhythmic shuffle that is faint, almost to the vanishing point. They alternate their feet quietly, in an almost complete silence. They play with the stress of the rhythm and subtilize the accent. A little more and they will give complete satisfaction to Tagnlioni, père. As the technical process becomes so radically modified, and as the action of these dance routines becomes more and more subtle and dissimulated, so does the whole character of the dance become more refined and its morale more elevated. The mad arabesques of the incomparable Josephine can give us an almost shocking insight into our own more sombre depths, but Florence Mills, for instance, is developing towards an almost precious elegance. It is no longer the tigress who stands before us but the marquise, who has rubbed a little burnt cork on her cheeks, instead of her customary rouge, before dancing a Court Charleston "ad usum Delphini."

[ 293 ]

URDAY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, JULY 30, 1927

# Qwertyuiop
## A Shirtsleeves History

VI. (Continued)

I WAS back in 1922, wasn't I? Early in that year the Irish Free State seemed to be in sight and the Princess Victoria Alexandra Alice Mary was to be the bride of a peer. Mencken had been lighting into D. H. Lawrence. He thought his handling of psychoanalysis extremely bad. People were reading and talking of "Women in Love" which Seltzer had brought out. The old firm was called Scott and Seltzer, with an irresistible connotation. Seltzer also brought out Evelyn Scott (though she was not the Scott of the firm). With "The Narrow House" her mordant talent first impressed the public. Sinclair Lewis averred strongly that she "belonged," to use the term of Yank in O'Neill's play. Mrs. Scott's husband also wrote. He wrote "Blind Mice." He has since made his name, not as a novelist but as a painter, having gained considerable acclaim abroad. Evelyn Scott was to go on to "Escapade," a presumably autobiographical book with passages of truly remarkable descriptive power and also with what always seemed to me a pervading neurosis. Nothing, as Lola Ridge has since put it, evaded "the cold extortion of her eye," which gave "Escapade" a macabre fascination. The attempt was to be pitilessly honest, the emphasis placed to a degree upon every single disagreeable detail. Still, no one could fail to realize that Mrs. Scott took high rank as a naturalist. "Escapade" was a catharsis. Such books are usually more beneficial to the writer than to the reader. But Mrs. Scott is an artist born. Her name will not be forgotten in our literary history.

There was Henry Ford and Muscle Shoals,—
but we won't go into that, even if you remember
the alumite deposits Ford's engineers found in the
mountains of Utah, and his potash schemes. More
important to us is the fact that Robert C. Benchley,
dramatic critic of *Life*, produced his first humorous
volume entitled "Of All Things." In the last five
years "Mr. Benchley" constantly has consolidated his
gains as a humorist, tossing off a tome of genial idiocy
every year or so, and has become a specialist in what
his eminent humorist friend, Donald Ogden Stewart,
speaks of as "Wormiana." There is no one
just like Benchley in the annals of American
humor; there never was, nor will there be again.
Several of the newer humorists have picked up a
trick or two of his; none of them can turn the trick
as he does. "Of All Things" may be said to have
marked the rise in America of the now well-known
"Cuckoo" humor,—that is, we read it and liked it
and we haven't anything else to say against it.

Loeb who financed it intermittently. Mr. Loeb has
since become a novelist. Lola Ridge, with her
native gallantry and vital force in a frail physique
was for some time its American editor. Into its
basement office downtown off Fifth Avenue drifted
at one time most of the interesting young writers
in New York. Some of them only took tea and
some of them helped address envelopes or wrap up
parcels. Intermittently. Meanwhile Miss Ridge,
who had been making a name for herself with "The
Ghetto" and ranks today as one of the best women
poets in America, contributed heroic effort. Broom
was an expensive looking periodical printed in Italy,
whither Alfred Kreymborg had gone to edit it. He
wearied "gredually" and took to writing sonnets
A reaction from free verse was beginning to steal
over some of the more advanced.

Langston Hughes, the negro poet, first piped up
"Wisecracking" was to come in also. But we were
still in the pre-Miltgrossian era. We had with us
Harold Stearns and the problem of the Young Intellectual.
Finally, even Henry Sydnor Harrison
wrote a novel about Harold Stearns.

Harold Stearns had written for the *Dial* and for
the *Freeman*, the latter weekly abounding and
abutting in those days,—and a darn well written
paper it was, too. Harold had incited "Civilization
in the United States," a symposium by notable type-
writers that reached the conclusion in general that
the less said about civilization in the United States
the better. At least, that was my impression. The
vitamines craze was, of course, somewhat unfair to
meat,—and the symposium craze may have been
somewhat unfair to civilization; but, anyway, it
wasn't the Cross-Word Puzzle craze, which came
a little later. Stearns, and a good many like him,
thought that one must go abroad for one's civiliza-
tion. The feet of the young men followed the
trail to the green purlieus of Paris. They had sworn
their vow, not like the Roosevelt boys "on the horns
of Ovis Poli," but by the great horn spoon of
Anatole France. Some of them have had a pretty
good time abroad. And we have been receiving—
still are—*transition* and *This Quarter*. And the
Mountain has brought forth no Mouse, indeed, in
the work of Ernest Hemingway, who has "plenty of
stuff on the ball." But the European craze has
passed. Them as likes to live abroad lives abroad,
and that's about all there is to it. The hegira has
ceased to display the significance with which Harold
at one time invested it.

There was *Broom*. And there was Mr. Harold

August 31, 1927

THE NEW REPUBLIC

Negro Artists and the Negro

WHEN the Negro art fad first came into being and Negro poets, novelists, musicians and painters became good copy, literate and semi-literate Negro America began to strut and to shout. Negro newspapers reprinted every item published anywhere concerning a Negro whose work had found favor with the critics, editors, or publishers. Negro journals conducted contests to encourage embryonic geniuses. Negro ministers preached sermons, Negro lecturers made speeches, and Negro club women read papers—all about the great new Negro art.

Everyone was having a grand time. The millennium was about to dawn. The second emancipation seemed inevitable. Then the excitement began to die down and Negroes as well as whites began to take stock of that in which they had revelled. The whites shrugged their shoulders and began seeking for some new fad. Negroes stood by, a little subdued, a little surprised, torn between being proud that certain of their group had achieved distinction, and being angry because a few of these arrived ones had ceased to be what the group considered “constructive” and had in the interim produced works that went against the grain, in that they did not wholly qualify to the adjective “respectable.”

Langston Hughes was the major disturbing note in the “renaissance” chorus. His first volume of verse, “The Weary Blues,” introduced him as a poet who was interested in artistic material rather than in sociological problems. He went for inspiration and rhythms to those people who had been the least absorbed by the quagmire of American Kultur, and from them he undertook to select and preserve such autonomous racial values as were being rapidly eradicated in order to speed the Negro’s assimilation.

“The Weary Blues” did not evoke much caustic public comment from Mr. Hughes’ people. Negroes were still too thrilled at the novelty of having a poet who could gain the attention of a white publisher to pay much attention to what he wrote. Quietly, and privately, however, certain Negroes began to deplore the author’s jazz predilections, his unconventional poetic forms, and his preoccupation with the proletariat. But they were hopeful that he would reform and write in a conventional manner a “best people.”

Mr. Hughes, second volume, Fine Clothes to the Jew,” a hard, realistic compilation, happened to be published while Negroes were still rankling from Carl Van Vechten’s novel of Negro life in Harlem, “Nigger Heaven.” It seemed as if this novel served to unleash publicly a store of suppressed invective that not only lashed Mr. Van

Vechten and Mr. Hughes, but also the editors and contributors to Fire, a new experimental quarterly devoted to and published by younger Negro artists. Under the heading “Writer Brands Fire as Effeminate Tommyrot,” a reviewer in one of the leading Negro weeklies said: “I have just tossed the first issue of Fire—into the fire, and watched the cackling flames leap and snarl as though they were trying to swallow some repulsive dose.”

Fire, like Mr. Hughes’ poetry, was experimental. It was not interested in sociological problems or propaganda. It was purely artistic in intent and conception. Its contributors went to the proletariat rather than to the bourgeoisie for characters and material. They were interested in people who still retained some individual race qualities and who were not totally white American in every respect save color of skin.

There is one more young Negro who will probably be classed with Mr. Hughes when he does commence to write about the American scene. So far this writer, Eric Walrond, has confined his talents to producing realistic prose pictures of the Caribbean regions. If he ever turns on the American Negro as impersonally and as unsentimentally as he turned on West Indian folk in “Tropic Death,” he too will be blacklisted in polite colored circles.

The Negro plastic artists, especially Aaron Douglas and Richard Bruce, are also in disfavor, Douglas because of his advanced modernism and raw caricatures of Negro types, Bruce because of his interest in decadent types and the kinks he insists on putting upon the heads of his almost classical figures. Negroes, you know, don’t have kinky hair; or, if they have, they use Madame Walker’s straightening pomade.

Moreover, when it first became popular to sing spirituals for public delectation, the mass of Negroes objected vigorously. They did not wish to become identified again with what the spirituals connoted, and they certainly did not want to hear them sung in dialect. It was not until white music critics began pointing out the beauty of the spirituals, and identifying the genius that produced them, that Negroes joined in the hallelujah chorus.

Negroes are, of course, no different in this from any other race. The same class of Negroes who protest when Mr. Hughes says:

Put on yo' red silk stockings

Black gal.

Go out an' let the white boys

Look at yo' legs.

Put on yo' red silk stockings, gal

An' tomorrow's chile 'll

Be a high yaller

THE NEW REPUBLIC

August 31, 1927

38

have their counterpart in those American whites who protest against the literary upheavals of a Dreiser, an Anderson, or a Sandburg. And those American Negroes who would not appreciate the spirituals until white critics sang their praises have their counterpart in the American whites who would not appreciate Poe and Whitman until European critics classed them as immortals.

The mass of American Negroes can no more be expected to emancipate themselves from petty prejudices and myopic fears than can the mass of American whites. They all revere Service, Prosperity and Progress. True, the American Negro may be the more pitiful figure, since he insists on selling every vestige of his birthright for a mess of pot-tage.

The American Negro feels that he has been misinterpreted and caricatured so long by insincere artists that once a Negro gains the ear of the public he should expend his spiritual energy feeding the public honeyed manna on a silver spoon. The mass of Negroes, like the mass of whites, seem unable to differentiate between sincere art and insincere art. They seem unable to fathom the innate differences between a dialect farce committed by an Octavus Roy Cohen to increase the gaiety of Babitts, and a dialect interpretation done by a Negro writer to express some abstract something that burns within his people and sears him. They seem unable to differentiate between the Uncle Remus tales and a darky joke told by Irvin Cobb, or to distinguish the difference, in conception and execution, between a "Lulu Belle," with its cheap gaudiness and blatant ensemble, and an "All God's Chillun Got Wings" by a sympathetic, groping Eugene O'Neill. Even such fine things as a "Porgy" or a "Green Thursdays" are labeled inadequate and unfair. While "Nigger Heaven"—ask Carl Van Vechten!

Negroes in America feel certain fifth they must always appear in public butter side up, in order to keep from being trampled in the contemporary onward march. They feel as if they must always exhibit specimens from the college rather than from the kindergarten, specimens from the parlor rather than from the pantry. They are in the process of being assimilated, and those elements within the race which are still too potent for easy assimilation must be hidden until they no longer exist.

Thus, when the publishers of Mr. Hughes' second volume of verse say on the cover that "These poems, for the most part, interpret the most primitive types of American Negro, the bell boys, the cabaret girls, Spirituals, and the makers of funk songs," and that they "express the joy and pathos, the beauty and ugliness of their lives," Negroes begin to howl. This is just the part of their life which experience has taught them should be kept in the background if they would exist comfortably in these United

States. It makes no difference if this element of their life is of incontestable value to the sincere artist. It is also available and of incontestable value to insincere artists and prejudiced white critics.

The Negro artist is in a no more enviable position than is the emerging, or sometimes, for that matter, even the arrived artist, of other races or countries. He will receive little aid from his own people unless he spends his time spouting socio-logical jeremiads or exhausts his talent in building rosy castles around Negro society. He will be exploited by white faddists, and sneered at by non-faddists. He will be overrated on the one hand, and under-praised on the other.

Neither is the position of the bourgeois Negro an enviable one. Fearing as he does what his white compatriots think, he feels that he cannot afford to be attacked realistically by Negro artists who do not seem to have the "proper" sense of refinement or race pride. The American scene dictates that the American Negro must be what he ain't! And despite what the minority intellectual and artistic group may say, it really does seem more profitable for him to be what he ain't, than for him to be what he is.

The first literary works that came out of the so-called "Negro renaissance" were not of the riling variety. "Cane," by Jean Toomer, was really pre-renaissance, as it was published too soon to be lifted into the best-seller class merely because its author was a Negro. And, as Waldo Frank forewarned in his introduction to "Cane," Jean Toomer was not a Negro artist, but an artist who had lost "lesser identities in the great well of life." His book, therefore, was of little interest to sentimental whites or to Negroes with an inferiority complex to camouflage. Both the personality of the author and the style of his book were above the heads of these groups. Although "Cane" reeked with bourgeois-baiting revelations, it caused little excitement among the bourgeois sector of Negro society, save in Mr. Toomer's home town, Washington, D. C., where the main criticisms were concerning his treatment of Negro women.

"Fire in the Flint" by Walter White, "Flight" by the same author, and "There is Confusion" by Jessie Fauset were just the sort of literary works both Negroes and sentimental whites desired Negroes to write. The first, a stirring romantic propaganda tale, recounted all the ills Negroes suffer in the inimical South, and made all Negroes seem magnanimous, mistreated martyrs, all southern whites evil transgressors of human rights. In Callalow the moral and national manner. It was a direct descendant of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and it had the same effect on the public. White latter-day abolitionists shook their heads, moaned and protested. Negroes read, boiled and bellowed.

Less sensational and more ambitious, the second

This last poem was enough to endear Mr. Cullen to every bourgeois black soul in America, as well

August 31, 1927

THE NEW REPUBLIC

novel from this author's pen sought to chronicle the emotional and physical peregrinations of a female mulatto with such a preponderance of white blood in her veins that she could be either Caucasian or Negro at will. Miss Fauset's work was an ill-starred attempt to popularize the pleasing news that there were cultured Negroes, deserving of attention from artists, and of whose existence white folk should be apprised.

All of these works of fiction, as well as the two outstanding works of non-fiction, "The Gift of Black Folk" by W. E. B. Du Bois, and "The New Negro," edited by Alain Locke, that appeared during the heated days of the "renaissance" were consideredate of the Aframerican's *amour propre*, soothing to his self-esteem and stimulating to his vanity. They all treated the Negro as a sociological problem rather than as a human being. I might add that only in "The New Negro" was there even an echo of a different tune. The rest were treatises rather than works of art.

These works were all designed to prove to the American white man that the American Negro was not inferior *per se* and, therefore, were honored and blessed by Negroes.

"Color," a volume of verses by Countee Cullen, was also conventional in theme and manner. True, Mr. Cullen was possessed by a youthful exuberance that occasionally flamed with sensual passion, but for the most part he was the conventional Negro litterateur in all respects save that he had more talent than most of his predecessors. He could say:

> Yet do I marvel at this curious thing:
> To make a poet black, and bid him sing.

or wish

> To do a naked tribal dance
> Each time he hears the rain

and finally

> Once riding in old Baltimore,
> Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
> I saw a Baltimorean
> Keep looking straight at me.

> Now I was eight and very small
> And he was no whit bigger,
> And so I smiled, but he poked out
> His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."

> I saw the whole of Baltimore
> From May until December;
> Of all the things that happened there
> That's all that I know.

as to cause white critics to surpass themselves in calling attention to this Negro poet's genus, a thing far more important to them than his genius. And, since Mr. Cullen, unlike his contemporary, Mr. Hughes, has not and perhaps never will seek the so-called lower elements of Negro life for his poetic rhythms and material, and since he, too, assumes the conventional race attitude toward his people rather than an artistic one, he will probably remain endeared to both bourgeois black America and sentimental white America, more because of this attitude than because of his undisputed talent or his intense spiritual sensitivity.

Fortunately, now, the Negro art "renaissance" has reached a state of near sanity. Serious and insidious individuals are endeavoring to evaluate the present and potential significance of this development in Negro life. They are isolating, interpreting, and utilizing those things which seem to have a true esthetic value. If but a few live coals are found in a mountain of ashes, no one should be disappointed. Genius is a rare quality in this world, and there is no reason why it should be more ubiquitous among Blacks than Whites.

WALLACE THURMAN.