The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 12, 1917, Page 12

S oman’s Music in the Country Home . Alberta B.Toner agfi Mrs ' | Edited by | z | LEASE play my favorite march.” “Sing the song I love the best.” “Play some- thing lively — I'm Dblue.” How often we hear these and similar remarks. They so well jllustrate the power of music and the universal esteem in which it is held by big and little, old and young. Anything musical recalls visions of my own childish longing “to play the organ” and the baby sister whose arms were thrown around my neck to take the very words out of my mouth in her efforts “to sing with sister.” Anything which can give happiness to a child and is the means of bringing back beautiful memories of childhood is a good investment. My own personal experience as a teacher of the public schools demon- strated the fact that even a mere smat- tering of a musical education was a good investment from any viewpoint it might be taken. As a drawing card in a social way, decidedly yes; as an asset in a financial way ditto, for in a few instances when applying for a school one of the first questions asked was whether I could play an instru- ment and sing some. TO KNOW PEOPLE Some ‘one has well said the songs of a people are the story of its life told in music. The folk songs of the dif- ferent nations, such as love and mys- tic songs, pastoral songs, national and patriotic songs, and many others_are all worthy of a very intimate acquaint- ance. We are too prone to think we must be professionals in a musical way to get any real good out of music. This is a mistaken idea. We can not all be great singers or great com- posers, but we can experiment in listening to music. We can read the many beautiful stories about many of our time-tested songs. Many of them will endure as long as time itself. An interesting story’is told about the song “0Old Folks at Home.” During the Civil war a Northern regiment had its pay so long delayed that many of the soldiers, almost ready for mutiny, broke through the lines. Making for a town near camp, they returned in a rather drunken condition. In vain the officers endeavored to subdue the bed- lam let loose and restore order. As.a last resort, the bandmaster called his musicians to him and soon the strains of “Old Folks at Home” were heard. Within twenty minutes the half- drunken crowd had wept itself to sleep. TALENT ON THE FARMS Rev. E. C. Ford of the Plymouth church of Fargo, has done so much to prove , that country people have much dormant talent, only needing an opportunity to burst forth in song or waft sweet strains to the breezes. He has succeeded in organizing a chorus class near Fargo which has done some very remarkably good ‘work and so thoroughly demonstrated that country. people have musical talent. And .why not? = His plan was to have simple .song gervices,, learning new songs found in the song books of the church, and gradually working into chorus work and finally simple cantatas. They are all so much interested that they plan from one program to another. Like @ll communities which do not know themselyes or their latent talents, they had nq ideaof the possibilities of any musical progress. SE “The by-products of this community chorus work are inspiring and inter- esting.. The young people have been bound together by one great common- jnterest. They are forgetting petty jealousies and reaching out to grasp some of the worth-while things of life. ‘Another one has led to the purchase of pianos in many of the homes sa a teacher, is profitably employed there. The whole community has been put. on o higher plahe and the memories of the, chorus practices will always be pleas- ant to recall and never forgotten. NEARLY EVERYBODY CAN SING - Mr. Ford has this encouraging mes- sage to give to the people: “Country people have music in them. Ordinarily people can sing. By far more people tan sing than think they can. Music has too long been looked upon as an end in itself. In community: work it should be looked upon as a means to an end. In other words, music is the means by which we find many other things to help along for our common good.” The quaint folk-dances are, in a way, the outcome of rhythmic movements in music. They are very pleasant di- versions and their story is full of in- terest. The folk-dances are of two classes: the social dance which has no special significance and those dances which are religious in origin. The lat- ter-are the expression in’ rhythm of primitive beliefs and magic ceremonial. _.THE JOY OF A MUSICAL HOME A musical home is more or less a so- cial center. and a general uplift to any community. To be thoroughly enjoy- able does not necessarily mean that one must be a professional musician, or have a finished education in music. It matters not how crude or amateur- ish our efforts might be, it means hap- piness and better thoughts. Volumes have been written about the pathos of our great masters, but the one big idea to do something, to find them- selves, pushed them on and we love them for it because they have given It Chases A@ay Gloom and Makes Rural Life Happier us things worth loving. As art is the beautiful way of doing things, so also is music the beautiful way by which we find much happiness. The piano predominates as a home instrument because of its possibilities for one per- son. The violin ranks next, the piano and violin making splendid combina- tions for general entertainment. The dreamy waltz, the rollicking * polka, the stately marches, the jolly folk-dances all have their place in the House of Happiness and mean more as a means of our children loving home, than most of us are willing to concede. “What passion can not music raise and quell?” This shows so forcibly the power of music and many a child is a misfit in life because of no oppor- tunity to develop a God-given talent. TRAGEDY OF LOST GENIUS Music teachers could tell many heart-rendering stories of pupils whose wonderful gift of music is being lost to the world because parents do not un- derstand and fear there will be no dol- lars-and-cents returns. I have the story of a farmer’s daughter who has a v wonderful gift for piano playing, but unfortunately her parents feel that time and money are misspent when anything along musical lines is under- taken. She is plucky, teaching school in the winter and taking lessons dur- ing the summer. Perhaps it is a bless- ing to have some great noble soul find these embryonic musicians and give them the opportunity they so much need. Says Prof. Stephens of the Fargo Conservatory speaking of music for the home and the community: “Com- munity singing is a wonderful factor to bring people together. For individual instruction so many erroneous methods discourage students in piano practice, There is much more to music than merely playing the notes of a piece. Learn all you can about the composer, and the story he wants to tell in the piece. Listen to all musical sounds— the singing of the birds, the running brook, the great master pieces and all the good songs you can. This can be done with no expense and helps you as a music pupil to better understand and interpret your music.” A local orchestra of Fargo, composed of young people of the various educational institutions of the city. Many of its members are real farm girls and boys who are proving they have musical talent. For the Boys and Girls— Musical Instruments O YOUNG people who are studying music, it may seem strange to give attention to that class of instruments which are considered inferior to all the rest. Really if we take them by themselves, percussion or striking ‘instruments can not properly be call- ed musical instruments at all. To un- derstand the growth of anything we must start at the beginning or as near it as possible. The four parts of the orchestra, percussion, brass, wood- wind, and string choirs—the percussion choir takes us farthest back—take us away back among the beginnings of all things. The lowest savage had no musical instruments at all, and just a very limited language. Music and language have always gone together and those of you who are studying music know that it is itself a language, understood by all civilized people no matter what tongue they speak. We can imagine how these savages, possibly by accident, struck two pieces of wood or stone together at regular intervals. Although sounds like the roaring of the wind, the rumbling of thunder, the singing of birds, the splashing of waves, have existed as long as man has, all these sounds lacked one thing to make them of real value as music, and that was rhythm. Rhythm, then, is the oldest element of music, as the drum and its family are the oldest musical instruments. Finally ‘one of our early aneestors reached the height of ingenuity—he hollowed out a log closed over the ends with skins, beat them with sticks, and called it a drum. The worship of the drum became one of the.forms of a strange religion known as fetishism. The hollow log was dressed up with feathers, mounted on a pole and attended by priests who | carried it about the various tribes. - The pole was fixed in the ground and the people came in crowds to wor- ship it. As fast as the savage improved the form of his instrument, or idol rather, - he learned to adapt the rhythm to his own state of mind. Gradually the voice of the spirit disappeared and the drum became man’s own expression. Really, we can not afford to despise our primitive ancestor, for he made the most of his advantages and used his drum to express such feelings as he had. In the eleventh century things began ., to improve because the Crusaders brought into Europe all sorts of per- cussion instruments from the East. Various kinds of drums, tambourines and cymbals were then seen in Europe for the first time since the days of the savages. ‘They have been used, with very little change, ever since. Several kinds of instruments make up the percussion choir of the orchestra, but the only one that is constantly, used is the kettledrum. ' The use of all the others depends upon the character of the music. -In a military march, the rattling sidedrum comes in; in a funeral march, this drum is muffled; in a light dance movement the triangle or the “Glocken- spiel” is heard; and when the music is intended to express terror or agita- tion, the cymbals are brought together with a loud crash. With the excep- tion of the “Glockenspiel,” all these in- struments have no pitch; they do not strike any particular note, therefore they are useless as regards melody. They can only mark rhythm. The kettledrum has been so much improved _that it has a pitch and a range of four notes. Many may think s0, but the kettledrum is not at all an easy. instrument to manage. In order to get each of the four notes the player has to turn all the screws and adjust the parchment anew. .For this reason kettledrums are often used in pairs, one tuned to the keynote, the other to ELEVEN the fourth below. In this way the drummer has always the two chief notes in the scale to work upon. If the ‘composer has not exacted much from him, he will have quite an easy time. When a change of key is approaching, it’s quite exciting to watch the drum- mer screwing and unscrewing the drum and lightly tapping to hear if the pitch is true. When we remember that he has to tune up his drum while the orchestra is lifting up its voice, we realize that he must possess a sensitive and well-trained ear and a steady hand- and nerve as well. . We have traced the growth of the humblest part of the orchestra from its birth to the present time. It will prob- ably not reach a much greater height. Its great mission was accomplished centuries ago when it assisted our wild," untaught ancestors in developing their sense of rhythm, and thus laying “the foundation stone of that wonderful and beautiful structure, modern music. After the savage had been making rattles and drums, he learned to beat time “to mark rhythm.” Later on, he made a new discovery. He found out some way or other that blowing in a conch-shell made a deep ringing sound. From that time he began to blow into anything hollow—the horns and bones of animals, hollow reeds and stems of plants. These were all new and in- teresting to him for he discovered there was a great difference in sounds. By carefully listening and paying atten- tion, he found the difference between high and low in music, or in other words, pitch. We have supposed that primitive man learned to blow into the conch- shell, but it might have been the horn of an animal. Anyway these two kinds of trumpet were used some time before the hollow cane and they are regarded as the fore-runners of all our brass- wind instruments. (Concluded next week) g l