National music

“ And the national soul can be seen very imperfectly in the [Pg 61] official art of a nation; it must be sought for in the popular art—in the myths, the fairy tales, the ballads, and the folk-songs. So when the newly awakened national consciousness began to demand musical expression, it inevitably sought its materials in the music of the people. ”

“ But the means of 'creating' a national music to which I have alluded are childish. No: before a people can find a musical writer to echo its genius it must first possess men who truly represent it—that is to say, men who, being part of the people, love the country for itself: men who put into their music what the nation has put into its life ”

“ For a complete appreciation therefore of national music, we must always take into consideration the traits and environment of the people from which it sprung. Music, to be sure, is a universal language, but each nation has used this language in its own way. The most striking fact in present-day music is the variety gained from a free expression of nationalism [335] without infringing upon universality of appeal. ”

“ They will study our national traits and will unite them with the earnest work of American composers of today and yesterday; they will open their minds to the natural beauties of nature; they will try to raise the standard of the general public, and they will make music in America grow. May every American reader take this to heart!
In our chapter on “National Portraits in Folk Music” we told you that we have no definite traits in our music that could be called national because this country was settled by people of many different nationalities and races. ”

“ We see already more and more disappear from our country sides these sweet songs and improvised refrains which the rustic minstrels remembered and repeated, and the truly national music gives way, alas! ”

“ The emotions of the myriad peaks and valleys of life find a vibrant voice in country music. Relating experiences all of us share, these songs boast a long and proud tradition in our national heritage. For the better part of our history, country music's many talented singers and songwriters from across the land have touched the hearts and minds of our citizens-rural and urban, rich and poor, young and old. ”

“ Only the well-to-do may study Music in the United States and, strangely enough, our real talent often lies not in this class, but outside of this charmed circle, down among the elements of our foreign-born and the natives of foreign-born, whose ancestral nerves have been fed upon nationally provided musical rhythm. ”

“ All races have their distinctive national songs which they at once recognize as their own, even if they have never heard them before. It is a proper question to ask, what songs, then, belong to the American and appeal more strikingly to him than any others? What melody will stop him on the street, if he were in a strange land, and make the home feeling well up within him, no matter how hardened he might be, or how wretchedly the tunes were played? ”

“ Music, a recognized but still undirected agent for rhythm maintenance, is sought and produced in accordance with the disturbance of a body politic or of a body individual. The musical products of a nation mirror that nation’s history far better than pen and ink can laboriously spell it out. Music reaches down into physiological and psychological needs, and tends to reestablish rhythmic equilibrium, whether applied to physical organs, or to members of a national body. ”

“ Why is it that Germany, France, Italy have national styles of music? Why is it that England has no music recognised as national? It has able composers, but nothing indicative of the national life or national feeling. The reason is not far to seek. There is no centre of music to which English musicians may resort with confidence and thence derive instruction, counsel, and inspiration. ”

“ May it not date from a remote period in which the physicians of European nations resorted to music and incantations like the medicine-men of uncivilized tribes of whom an account has been given in the beginning of this essay?
[Pg 114]
POPULAR STORIES WITH MUSICAL TRADITIONS.
The intelligent reader need hardly be reminded that an insight into the peculiar notions respecting the beauty and power of music current among different nations may be of valuable assistance in the study of national music, inasmuch as it tends to throw light upon questions which appear obscure and inexplicable. ”

“ National musical genius is expressed in the degree to which the national emotions are aroused by national stimuli. Had France reacted to her social pressure in the same manner as did Germany with practically the same stimuli, our history might have properly closed with Germany’s triumph. ”

“ Reviewing the stages of Musical Evolution do we not discern concerted volition? Does not the mean tone of national musical types show concerted acceptance of that which answers to national tastes and needs? The very applause which establishes the modern type, is the outward sign of an inward intent [Pg 35] to embrace that product. Cool and restrained judgment precedes that acceptance. Any audience manifests resembling sensations of resembling individuals in that oneness of criticism so generally exhibited. ”

“ These statistics were very difficult to procure, and are rather surprising in content.
A copy of the questionnaire sent out will be found in Appendix A. The nations from whom we expected the least expenditure for musical culture, were found to be the most lavish. The United States stands apart from the world’s array of musical patrons. The recent interest in Indian and Negro Music may, however, prove an entering wedge to a wider cultivation of our national musical resources. Our State universities and our public schools are institutions of which the nation is justly proud. ”

“ Nor is popular music a negligible criterion in this respect, for in it have always lain the germs of truly national art. Of course, our knowledge of the state of musical culture in the early colonies does not enable us to say definitely and dogmatically just where and how American musical development first began. ”

“ Indeed, this may be asserted of national music in general; for it gives us an insight into the heart of man, reveals to us the feelings and predilections of different races on the globe, and affords us a clue to the natural affinity which exists between different families of men. ”

“ The 'Introduction to the Study of National Music' is intended to acquaint the student with the facts respecting the music of foreign nations and tribes which have been transmitted to us by travellers and through other sources. ”

“ While in the early years of New England there was developing a music which, in a way, sprang from the people—a music which really expressed a vital phase of the common life—there were elsewhere springing up the first growths of a more sophisticated art. This art, borrowed from European culture, has served as the real foundation of all that is esoteric in American music to-day, but at the same time its presence has fostered those influences which constitute the barrier to a vital national expression. ”

“ From those who are directly interested in music, either professionally or as amateurs, I trust I have a right to expect the greatest measure of assistance which they can afford; for on their behalf, and with a view to extend the influence of the science to which they are devoted, we are met here to-day for the purpose of establishing [Pg 401] a national central musical institution. I know the loyalty of our Colonial brethren; they will not be behindhand in aiding the mother country. ”

“ National culture and support of Music are effective means of exercising social control, because of [Pg 8] the calming influence of Music upon disturbed thought. Such an influence is a most necessary one at the present stage of mental agitation. Established within disturbed zones, national institutions for free musical instruction would place a check upon strained intellectualism, with its brood of idea-monstrosities, since Music would cause a relaxation of mental concentration. ”

“ It is not unreasonable to suppose that it is from what we generally designate as our 'popular music' that such an art will emanate; from the street, the theatre, the dance hall, and more particularly from the sentimentalities of the popular songs which periodically hold the affections of such a vast public. Ephemeral as is the mass of this music that annually sweeps over our country, each phase of it leaves its mark, some deeper than others, but all contributing to the upbuilding of the national character of our music. ”

“ The dogmatic emotional need has drawn forth from that type’s resources the austere musical products of master genius. Do we not find today in France, Germany and in modern Italy a national rhythm disturbed by critically intellectual [19] stimuli, which in turn call forth critically intellectual Music of the most distinct complexity? Music is both a social and a socializing force, which, although created by society, reacts upon its creator. ”

“ In America the world's music falls on fresh ears, with the result that a catholicity of taste prevails such as is to be found in no other land, and with the further result that a unique and broadly inclusive national impression of musical [Pg xi] character in general has been gained. This in turn is leading to a national creative musical output which, if it has not converged upon any one distinctive national character, is, on the other hand, wholly free from dependence upon the traditional character of the music of any other nation, and could have been produced by no other nation. ”

“ Music as an important measure in social control, and as an equally important factor in individual health, belongs under the eye of the national head. With the faint hope that this place will sometime be granted to music, we submit this work. ”

“ One imported European sensation gives way to another. The problem of the true basis of American music dissolves overnight, and gives way to the problem [Pg viii] of the specific evaluation of individual composers, whatsoever their tendency. The questions of the narrow concert world dwindle before the greater question of a broad musical administration for the people. We stand, in fact, in a state of chaos with respect of musical activities and ideals, and only the clearest thinkers are able to catch the truer and larger drift of the national evolution, or effectively direct it. ”

“ While the greater part of the world has stayed aloof, the problem of a national American music has been solving itself. Aside from occasional attentions evoked by chance performances, it may be said in general that the growth of our music has been unloved and unheeded by anybody except a few plodding composers, their wives, and a retainer or two. ”

“ At present America is obliged to depend both for her best Music and musical instruction largely upon foreign talent. With national support of her own talent, this deplorable condition would soon cease. This would also free Americans from absolute dependence upon private institutions. ”

“ That type of musical æsthetic which insists much on the importance of the racial and national differences dividing human kind into groups, and of the special features, technical and expressive, characterizing the music of these various groups, is constantly challenging our American music to disavow what it calls a featureless cosmopolitanism, and to achieve individuality by idealizing some primitive popular strain, whether of the Indians, of the negroes, of the British colonizers, or of our contemporary "ragtime." ”

“ Too many persons are ready to suppose that the issues of music in America lie wholly within the scope of purely musical considerations, and that they do not depend, as is actually the case in certain important respects, upon the nature of the national ideals and tendencies. ”

“ It is refreshing indeed to feel that Music holds so large a share of public attention in this brave little Republic of the south. The study of her musical statistics in Appendix C suggests very strongly that the Latin races may have found in their Music, an antidote for the chilling commercialism of modern civilization. ”

“ One might possibly add one more brand of nationalism to the folklorist, evocative, and primitivist—the attempt to base a national style on jazz. Such classification is of course artificial and of purely practical value. While folklorism, the evocation of American images, and the type of primitivism we have been discussing, are related exclusively to American backgrounds, jazz, on the other hand, though it originated in this country and is considered a product of our culture, has had an influence on music outside the United States. ”

“ II.—COMMUNITY MUSIC AND THE COMPOSER
By Arthur Farwell
The birth of our national self-consciousness in music, from the creative standpoint, occurred less than twenty years ago. Not until the last two decades did the prodigious musical studies of our young people at home and abroad produce composers in sufficient quantity to make American music, its character and potentialities, a national question. ”

“ Since we have almost no indigenous national melodies, why should we not sing the old songs, chorals, and hymns that have survived all sorts of national changes and belong to every people? The tune for “America” is not an American tune, neither is it English. It originated in Saxony. There is no nationalism to stand in the way of such music, because it speaks elementally and universally. ”

“ As a natural consequence of events in American musical history, dating from the earliest days, there has arisen the so-called 'musical world' of America to-day, the well-defined national system of concert, recital and operatic life. This system arose normally to supply the new world with the products of the highly developed musical art of the old, and in such a capacity it has admirably served its purpose. ”