Evening Star Newspaper, June 21, 1931, Page 86

N the year 1675 one of the New England States enacted a law “that no one should play on any kind of music except the drum, the trumpet and the jewsharp”; organs had not yet been installed in ‘the churches, and the singing of anything but the simplest chorals was considered a skittish and extremely wicked thing to do. In other words, the dawn of music in this country was not a sudden and fiery event—but rather a cramped and long-drawn-out affair, which—if our pilgrim forefathers had had the regulation of—might have resulted in nothing more than mild musical accompaniments to milder songs of the “spirit” or parhaps unexciting fugues done in imitation of their father fugues. The slow growth of music in the United States fs clearly indicated in an extremely important new book by John Tasker Howard, called “Our American Music— Three Hundred Years of It.” Although Mr. Howard tries to suggest that this branch of the manly arts has run along with some of the others in leaps and bounds, when one realizes that it wasn’'t until the turn of the middle part of the last century (1850) that we had composers who remain familiar in this day—and that jazz is now possibly our most characteristic : ational music, one is aware that we have not been precisely up and coming. Mr. Howard’s book is one that should be at Band in any musical library. He has tracked down with foresight and energy the causes, reasons, fac‘ors and impetuses which have gone into the making of what there is of American music. He tabulates to great advantage and with great clarity the composers, their im- portant works and why they are important, and his long list of 2n2cdotes are worth any one'’s and every one’s attzntions. Thus one is told the sad biography of that craftsman of South- ern melcdies, Stephen Foster, whose “Old Folks at Home” was written at the request of E. P. Christie of Christy’s Minstrels; one reads that Daniel Gregory Mason's first music was prob- ably writtan for the Harvard Hasty Pudding Club shows; that Deems Taylor has been a newspaper man, critic, linguist, “translator of prose and poetry, artist with pen and brush, editor and public speaker; that the first public concert in this country was given in Boston-- ating Charlestown by four months; and that 1731 the first organist of a church in Phila- delphia (to the horror of the New Englandites) wrote a letter in defense of the organ, claiming that its music would “attract and civilize the wild Indian.” ; N reading this book—which is long, but vital ‘im its various manifestations (all branches of music are written about: church, instrumental, voice, operas, virtuosos, composers—folk songs and national anthems—these are particularly interesting)—Mr. Howard brings a calm, cool but shrewd judgment to bear on his characters. Nevins he is for—rather than against (and this in an age when it is the fashion to pooh-pooh his works); MacDbwell he praises, but not in the hysterical manner of so many of his followers of today; Francis Hopkinson he admits is our first composer, dwelling on the letter which this educated man wrate to George Washington when he sent along his first copy of “Seven songs, for harpsichord or forte piano,” in which he modestly asserted that “I cannot be refused the credit of being the first native of the United States who has produced a musical composi- tion,” and Mr. Howard openly seems to profess & weakness for George Gershwin. _Particularly is it interesting to watch for the development of music in various sectionis of the country during one period; while New England growls at instrumental! music, Charlestown wit- nesses the first opera (in 1735, “Flora, or Hob in the Well”), and later on while Boston be- comes the center of certain musical under- takings one finds advertisements in New York papers to the effect that a “vocal concert for the benefit of the Respectable Aged and Indi- gent Female Assistance Society” will be given on such and such a day, and that admission to & *musical party” in the middle nineteen hun- dreds was usually something like 1212 cents. T is all a highly romantic business this growth .of American music, and it is rather curious to note the tremendous importance that certain migrations from other lands have had on it. This is a point seldom thought of. While we fret and storm and worry over what is going on musically abroad we forget that at home things quite as interesting are happening, al- though they may be too near the end of our noses to see properly. Nor are we inclined to realize the briéfness of “our music” or remember that from 1620 to 1800w little has survived to this day except Hoden's “Coronation”; “Yankee Doodle” and “Hail Columbia”; and that from 1800 to 1860 there was Lowell Mason and the hymn writers, as well as Gottschalk and Stephen Foster—but comparatively little else. It is not really until John K. Paine and Dudley Buck comes along that things begin to stir themselves—and such musical pinnacles as were provided by Nevins and MacDowell came “to light. Thereafter things begin to take a more lively turn: Particularly interesting to Washing- tonians in this book should be the references to Mr. Sonneck, former chief of the Library of - f:ngress' Music Division, and Carl Engel (one alizes, too, what a tremendous storehouse of musical history is treasured in this vast library, and how much through its help and such help as Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge’s has beep given music by it) and there are sketches of Mrs. H. H. Beach seen her so often and so warmly greeted as first lady composer of the land, and of countless others whom one would willingly tell as well as read about. It is all vastly stimulating. The material seems to be unend- ing. Perhaps the biggest surprise in it is the _mention of such pcpular but not exactly Busical genil as Paul Whiteman Zez Confrey Bnd others, ' J. T. Howard Writes on ““Our American - Music”—Pupils and Their Teachers Feature Week of Much Activity. Rosa Ponselle, noted soprano of the Metropolitan Opera Co., who recently opened the Covent Garden Italian Opera season in London before an audience that included King George, Queen Mary, King Alfonso of Spain and others. Miss Ponselle will be one of the features-of Mrs. Wilson-Greene’s 1931-32 phil- harmonic course of afternoon concerts. Commencement Exercises at Colleges. HE twenty-fifth annual commencement of the Washington College of Music will take place tomorrow evening at 8:30 o'clock at Barker Hall, Young Women’s Christian Association. HE Washington Musical Institute’s first an- nual commencement and eleventh recital will take place Friday evening at 8:15 o’clock at Barker Hall, Young Women’s Christian As- sociation. Diplomas and certificates will be presented by Edwin N. C. Barnes, president of the board of trustees, and Weldon Carter, presi- dent of the institute, will award a gold medal «for highest all-around scholarship. A recital program will follow, presented by the prepara- tory and the graduate departments. THE junior pupils of Angela Edwards Red- mond will give a program of piano solos at the studio, 1235 New York avenue, on Thurs- day afterncon at 2 o’'clock. Genevieve Spencer, violinist, will be the assisting artist. Those participating will include Betty Paylor, Ruth Rosendorf, Regina Ursudo, Charlotte Barnard, Doris Templeton, Adele Silverberg, Hazel Fisher, Mabel Johnson, Frances Barnard, Ruth Cowen, James Noe, Milton Mitchell and Evans.Barge- mann. RECITAL and dance will be given by the pupils of Josie T. Frailey on June 24 and 25, at Pierce Hall, at 8 p.m. Assisting Mrs. Frailey will be Mrs, Beatty, Miss Carlin and Mrs. Cherrington. HE Master School of the Piano, Grace G. Gilehrist, director, and Gustav G. Wechel, assistant director, will present members of its junior class in a recital on Thursday evening at 8:15 o'clock at Barker Hall, Young Women’s Christian Association. 37 UPILS of Eva Whitford Lovette will be pre- sented at a musical and garden party in the garden house of the Dodge Hotel on Wednes- day evening at 8:30 pm. Eilsie Cranmer will be the assisting accompanist. LAST Friday evening a musicale was given at the Epworth M. E. Church by voice stu- dents of the Epworth Senior Choir, the Epworth Male Quartet and a group of piano pupils of Edwin Moore. Those taking part included Margery League, Ida Moore, Dora Payne, Leslie Allen, Jeanne Baade, Dorothy Dodge, Margery League, Barbara Sweet and Samuel Goodson. RANCES GUTELIUS presented a group of young- pianists in her studios last Thurs- day evening. These included Barbara Smith, Helen Matheson, Joy and Bobby Hulsizer, Joyce . Lorimer, Patty Horne, Jean and Marguerite Shaffer, Jean Beveridge and:'Walter Hieks, jr. Others were Home McAllister, Barbara Bolling, Walter Swank and Josephine Noel. N Tuesday evening the younger piano pupils of Claude Robeson were heard in recital at the Mount Pleasant Congregational Church. They were assisted by Edith White, contralto. Those taking part were Thomas Habecker, Pauline Birch, Robert Vernier, Peggy Lockhart, Bruce Crozier, Elaine Bush,” Mary B. Patton, Dick Gorbach, Saveria Rubino, Adam Wenchel, Jean Gorbach, Madelina Daidone and Margaret Scott. MY C. YOUNG presented several of her pupils in a piano recital at her studio on Saturday evening. Those taking part were Maybelle De Franceaux, Sophie Pollock, Mar- garet Coupef, Helen Bertram, Constance Feld- man and Jean Yadkowski. OROTHY M. MARR will present her stu- dents in a piano recital Friday evening at 8 pm. at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. The orchestra and soloists of the Institute of Musical Art, Dr. E. E. Christiani, director;, will assist. PIANO recital by pupils of Wikna Benton \ McDevitt was given last Monday evening at the Arts Club. The soloists included Harold Continued on Seventeenth Page Musigraphs given in Purcellville, Va., Thursday, June 11, for the benefit of the new church organ fund. Franceska Kas- par Lawson was soprano; Adessa Ehre hart, contralto; H. Sontag, tenor; J. E. S. Kin- sella, bass, and Henry Davis, bass. ' NTON KASPAR, assisted by his voice A pupils, arranged a concert which was Mary Helen Howe, ‘coloratura soprano, sang “Oh, Divine Redemer,” by Gounod, at the closing novena services at the Visitation Mon- astery at Bethesda, Md. At the previous serv= ice the trio from the cantata “Attilla,” by .Verdi, was rendered by Clement Geibel, Ray- mond Holden and Miss Howe. Other guest soloists have been Florence Yocum, Minna Volkeman, Delphine Barr Walsh, Martha Bar- bee and George Schimmel. Louise McNearney was at the organ. . On Sunday next, June 28, at 4:30 p.m., Geor- gia E. Miller, director of the Virgil Piano School, will hold a recital in her studio, 1406 H street northwest. Those taking part on the program will include George Cornwell, Mar- garet Loane, Elvia Allpress Meyer, Norma Bell Carty, Elizabeth Hartung, Joe Oehmann, Jean Weaver and Eva Abraham. Ira Meyer, bari- tone, will assist with a group of songs. Elvia Meyer will accompany him. Edith J. MacCartee will be the soprano solo-A ist at Walter Reed Hospital this evening. The contralto soloist will be Catherine Lightburn. =3 Emma Louise Thompson and Gladys Price Sanders, teachers of music at Business and Western High Schools, respectively, are sailing June 19 to spend the Summer in Europe. Their itinerary will include the art centers of Europe. Miss Thompson and Mrs. Sanders will return in the Fall to assume their church positions as organist of Trinity M. E. Church and choir director of West Washington Baptist Church. Blanche Deal, president of the Virginia State Music Teachers' Association and organist of Christ Church, Roanoke, and Gordon H. Ba’(er, director and soloist of the same church, are spcnding the week end with Dr. Albert W. Harned. The National Capital Choir and Dr. Harned entertained the visitors yesterday after-- noon. Richard Allen, tenor, and Blaine Cornwell, baritone, will present a musical program ac- companied by Jewell Downs at the commence= ment exercises of the Benjamin Franklin Uni- versity next Friday at the Mayflower Hotel. Warren Lee Terry of New York is spending a few days in Washington before leaving for . Chautauqua, N. Y., where he is tenor soloist and assistant director of the opera. Warren F. Johnson will give an organ recital at the Church of the Pilgrims at 7:30 o’clock this evening. He will play “Prelude and Fugue - in G Flat,” Hans Huber; “Chanson Joyeuse,” Macfarlane, and “Finale” from “First Sonata,” by F. S” Smith. Gertrude Lyons, president of the District of Columbia Federation of Music Clubs, re- cently attended the Talbott Festival held in the Cornell Stadium. Announcement has been made that Elsa Meiskey, dramatic soprano of the Philadelphia Grand Opera Co., will be featured in a series of Sunday evening concerts at the Shoreham Hotel next season. At the first annual dinner of the National Delphian Society Chapters, held Monday at - the Shoreham Hotel, the soloists included Ruth H. Snodgrass, soprano, who was accompanied - by. Reta V. Maybee; Mrs. William S. Graham, mezzo-soprano, accompanied by Mrs. Holland Huntington, and Myrle Patschke, accompanied by Mrs. Maybee. Hawailan music was pro- vided throughout the dinner by students from the American Institute of Music. At the recent meeting of the Chaminade ‘Glee Club, the following officers for the ene suing year were elected: Louise Munsey, presi= dent; Grace Weed, first vice president; Edith Hendrickson, second vice president; Betty - Black, secretary, and Laura Lindley, treasurer, MUSICAL STUDIOS. BASS SOLOIST WITH SEVERAL YEARS' experience in Protestant and Catholic church music desires change. _Solo _or quartet work. For interview address Box -M, Star office. Karl Holer COMPCSER 3803 13th ST. COL. 7556. ¢ " BESSIEN. WILD Voice Culture, Piano and Harmony Studio, 6824 5th st., Takoma Park. D. C. PHONE GEORGIA 3233, "~ Armando Jannuzzi Grand Opera, Dramatic Tenor Voice Specialist : Instructor of . , . -EDITH WALLACK Dramatic Soprane Itali Method From La Scals, Milan, Italy Col. 4608 3403 14th St."N.W.