The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 9, 1896, Page 18

18 : W.E.BOVRNES £ RESIDENCE S AN o .fib{f&un:}%{ “AC Fair rron TrE REFS, TONE RESIDENCE OF o‘ £JHN DSPRECKELS o N covmse OF CONSTRUCTIONG VAN NESS, 9 & A 0%F § . > T T ORIENTAL r‘DONTED STvDio OF BUSH & WOCKER THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 1896. X coeoe O e A MODEST LITTLE COTTAGE ON JACKSON ST, 0 R S A £ B ‘[ ADOORWAY AT ‘A BIT OF PORCH MASON & SACRAMENTO 19 STREETS |' RESIDENCE S, B t_ AT THE CORNER = { or S ; |BROADWAY wess BUCHANAN] oy Aot % SACRAMENTO ST. ~ N VR OF! LAY, € ROMAN Bvrr'Bmc:(%Q A San Francisco Renaissance Certain Evidences That the Thought-to-Be-Eternal Age of the Bay-Window), Painted (ray, Is at an End Architecture is not San Francisco’s strong point. That has been said over and over again. The long gray lines of stupid gray repetitions that present themselves from every hilltop or that pass in review with every nickel’s worth of streetcar riding that men do make it unnecessary to say it at all. But in this season of Roentgen rays and such things there has appeared with the suddenness of a discovery almost break after break in the dull lines that are refreshing to a degree and that fill the heart with hope. No city in the Union might compare with San Francisco for picturesqueness if her citizens availed themselves of her natural offerings. That, too, has been said once or twice, and likewise to the man with appreciation in his heart and a little fancy in his eye it need never bave been said at ail. Ah, these hills and slopes and peaks and the prospects from them—what opportunity they offer to the architect. And just now the architect is getting up here and there suggestions of these possibilities in the form of residences and semi-public buijdings. A few young men in that line have within the past very few years begun to think while they work, with a result that inspires every citizen of San Francisco with theenthusiasm of a promise of its ultimate redemption. The man who to-day ridesoverany of the streetcar lines that climb the hills will be well repaid in what he may find archi- tecturally among these breaks in the dull gray lines. This without regard to the mansions of the City. The man- sions go without saying. Some few of these do notcome within the new era. Some of them are quite old, comparatively, and serve as monuments to a prodigai and past era of ready money, The City has its full share perhaps of substantial palaces that have been builded year by year. They are expected to represent such architectural display as money everywhere can buy. They are worth seeing, of course, anyhow. But not all of them by any means are beautiful. Some of them it must be admitted are even vulgar extravagances;, others are noble and imposing and all that they should be.' Butin any case they form little part of this story. This has reference to that which is new—the more or less unexpected, the manifestation of thought and good taste in the building of the average home. For instance there stands at the top of the first rise of Cali- fornia street, on the left going west and at the corner of Taylor street, the house of the late A. N. Towne. It is a simple among the first to break the leaden spell. It had, therefore, much to recommend it to San Francisco. As showing the way toward better things it may be credited with much of the reformation that has made this article possible. 1t was de- signed by the late A. Page Brown and was his earliest successful production in residences. At the corner of Webster and Broadway W. E. Bourne is building an attractive residence. . The style is a mixture of Italian zenaissance and Flemish. The building is not nearly completed, but it will form a feature of its neighborhood. Siwanding in the sand almost alone out on Sacramento street, almost opposite the Children’s Hospital, is a-gueer building that awakens the curiosity of everybody that comes within its view. It bardly has a place in a list of new-era residences, for it is not & residence, but an artists’ studio—the studio of Bush & Walker, scenic painters, The artists needed a wide wall space, and put up the structure to secure it—a plain, square frame house, with a freakish but artistic front. The style is oriental, suggestive of botter weather than obtains in this City. It is not the heavy stone or adobe that it looks, however, but plain concrete and plaster. The creation repre- sents the combined genius of the artists themseives and the architect Theo Laist. A beautiful residence in gray stone has just been completed for Mrs. George W. Gibbs at 2622 Jackson street. Itisa plain square sbructyre without embellishment of any kind. The bandsome entrance is marked by a portico semi-circular in form, supported by stone pillars. The roof is a feature in itself, done in Spanish tile, the roof of the portico being the same. The new residence of Mrs, J. Nash Scott Brown, at the corner of Jackson and' Plerce streets, is built of rough brick, with English tile roof. It is devoid of any ornamentation and from Jackson street looks almost forbidding in its simplicity. The ‘‘trades entrance” is on that side. The entrance on Pierce- streecis the one bit of ornamentation to the building. Itisin chased gray stone, with lantern overnangng and stone shield above. The lower windows on this side are decorated with artistic iron grating. The whole is in Elizabethan style. The architects are Coxhead & Coxhead. The same firm are the authors of a uniyue structure at the corner of Washington and Lyon streets, a stable belonging 1o John M. Cunningham. It isshingled outside, intensely Eng- lish in treatment, with a clock on the tower and ornamental wrought iron grill with lantern over the entrance. John D. Bpreckels is building a magnificent residence in red stone at Van Ness avenue. SOME GA;% AN ENGLISH, HALF TIMBERED RESIDENCE, I £3 CORNER "fig»’ OF THE SPANISH 47 TILED ROOF OF ‘s THE NEW RESIDENCE oF 2 R? 5 o3 MR (EOWGIBBSZE WASHINGTON NEAR VAN NESS B)e—r ENTRANCE TO MENRY CROCKER S RESIDENC INGTON )' poab==0290 RESIDENCE OF THE LATE e, - R —— UL L3 P S 1 LA ~— § idea in white and brown. The style is something on the line of % the colonial. The first story is built of Roman brick, with mar- o w ble entrance and portico. The upper story is frame, painted the o = ? whiteness of the marble. This isa latter-day house, but was g Sy % Biak pee a = 8 o8& JOAN M. CUNNINGHAMS ZgoHB STABLE ) 2% 9 & = Y= SO ACKSON ST ~ 4 & fs, 2 87 THE SWEDENBORGIAN PASTORATE DR.WISTE RESIDENCE, rsicueD avmmses RUSSIAN MiLL, ¢ AN TOWNE o 'fi‘ CAUIFORNIA ST B ) S bfi—‘ Weird Melodies of a Strange New Mexican People,.‘Now the Fad in Musical Circles Throughout musical and scientific cen- ters in the East a new interest has been created in the weird, fascinating songs of the Zuni Indians through a wholly un- looked-for medium. These same songs had been taken on a phonograph by mem- bers of the Hemenway expedition purely in the interest of science, and so far only one musician has succeeded in transposing them in accordance with the rules of har- mony. Even the Zunian music received no attention except from students of efh- nology. It remained for a young lady, and a San Franciscan at that, to bring the songs and melodies of these interesting = H! what happiness! How delightful! people of New Mexico before the public. ’. Eastern papers and musical journals i/ Wh‘n tozethzr we nuthmbla'nkct have contained many flattering notices of this young woman'’s novel concerts. She appears in costumes of different nations and sings songs which she is popularly supposed to have learned from thestrange people of the Midway Plaisance at the Columbian Exposition. At least such is the impression this en- terprising singer has allowed to go abroad. Like the grotesque fad—the decadence— now sweeping over the art of painting ana designing, those unique performances have a fascination for musical and cultured people and their introduction has cansed a stir at the other end of the continent. The young lady 1s well known here jn so- ciety and literary circles, and she is none otber than Miss Viva Cummins, the daugh- ter of Mrs. Ella Sterling Cummins. Miss Cummins was a pupil of Professor Carlos Troyer in this City for years. She studied his arrangement of Zunian and other music of a similar character, and sings at least two Znnian songs, which he received from Profes:or Frank H. Cush- ing, director of the Hemenway expedition, who learned them while living among the Zunis. When Dr. Cushing was in San Francisco regaining his health after years of hardship in New Mexico, he gelivered one of the most interestinz lectures ever given before the Academy of Sciences, and it was then that he met Professor Troyer, the librarian of the academy. He sang the wonderful songs that were until then unknown to civilized ears—songs he had studied and imitatedin the dreary, sunburned homes of the Zunis. Nothing like these melodies had ever been heard before. It was not strange that the depth of mystery, the singular force of expression and the absolute novelty of this music fasei- nated the musician. Professor Troyer saw in the songs qualities suggesting a primi- walk, L We together ’neath one blanket walk, We together ’neath one blanket walk. ‘Can it be that my young maiden fair Sits a-waiting all alone to-night? Is she waiting for me only? Is she waiting for me only? May I hope it is my young maiden, Sitting all alone and waiting me; Will she come then? Will she walk with me? ’Neath one blanket we together be— Will she come? tiveidea of musical science. The tones it seemed were largely taken from nature—pos. sibly the sigh of the wind that somehow tells us a mournful story as it passes through the trees or houses, now swelling into a full volume of sound, and again fading away to an almost inaudible whisper, still retaining its quality. Then it would take on the color of & joyful bird song, or at least indicate that influence; but overali there ap- peared, like streaks of light, a ring of true feeling, intensely buman, often pathetic, In the course of his lecture Dr. Cushing sang several Zunian melodies. The notes, as far as such tones could be recoraed by musical notation, were thereupon taken by Mr. Troyer, who declared that he could adapt them to our system of music. “It is impossible,” was the exclamation of the eminent archzologist, on being told that the Zuni songs could be recorded. “Many musicians have declared it beyond the scope of civilized music to reproduce the singularintonation and inflections, and be- sides there are fractional tones not known in the chromatic scale.’ But the musician persevered, and suc- ceeded in transcribing and harmonizing the “Zunian Lullaby” and the “Zunian Lover’s Wooing,” which he dedicated to Dr. Cushing., They were played for his benefit, and at once Dr. Cushing pro- claimed them perfect. And now these gs are vart of the papers of the Hemen- way expedition in' the Bmithsonian Insti- tution, and preserved in the archives of the bureau of ethnology. The Zuniun words were translated iito English by Dr. Cushing, but were never published. They givea fair idea of the character and spiritual leanings of the Zunis, being full of dignity and expres- sive of exalted thought, one toward their deities, the other toward their women. In the “Lullaby” a Zunian mother calls for protection in most beautiful language, forgetting self and placing her offspring under the care of the sun and moon gods. Some difficulty was met with in attempting to convey the idioms, translated as “epirit Hving, spirit resting,” which in Zunian thought are the “rising sun of life,”” and the “‘setting son of rest’’—very picturesque and beautiful symbols. As a glimpse of Zunian character the song is worth giving in Dr. Cushing’s words. The Lullaby is sung in the weird strains of an incantation, rising and falling even in single notes, yet soft and dreamy, for itisinspired by the tenderness of mater- nity. The transcriber directs that it must be sung ‘‘with great emotion and deli- cacy,” which, in briefest language- pos- sible, explains the song. Quite a different view is given by the blanket song which tells of a custom among the youthful Zunilovers. The singer approaches the house of his hopes at night time wrapped in his blanket and serenades the object of his affections ina respectful if not, indeed, a chivalrous strain. He asks if she will walk with him under his blanket, but does not dare to address her in the second person, for that Guard this helpless infant sleeping. Grant, O Sun-God, thy protection, Guard this helpless infant sleeping. Resting peaceful, resting peaceful, Starry Guardians, forever joyful. Faithful Moon-God, forever watchful, Grant, O Sun-God, thy protection, Guard this helpless infant sleeping. Spirit living, Spirit resting, : Guard us, lead us, aid us, love us ever and ever. Spirit living, Spirit resting, Guard us, lead us, aid us, love us ever and ever. is part of Zunian belief. The Zunis do not say to each other “Will you?” or “vo you?” but speak indirectly—"“Will she?” or “Will he?' and this is illustrated in the song as one of the striking characteristics of the race. Should the maiden favor the swain by accepting his tattering invitation and walk with him under one blanket it is regarded as an acceptance of his suit, but if she fail to leave her house he wanders away in the night only to repeat his sere- nade at another time. The most trouble- some obstacle encountered in trans- cribing the Zunian music was, per- haps, in the idiomatic cadences run- ning through all the notes. And yet this same feature gives to Zunian music decided singularity altogether unique from a musician’s point of view, but full of a weird coloring that constitutes much of the charm possessed by these melodies. Heard for the first time a Zunian song has & peculiar if notan uncanny effect. The singer begins on a note in a whisper and, dwelling upon it, increases its intensity, and then shades it back again to a mere breath. In this guise the serenade of the Zuni lover becomes a plaintive, appealing song. And so, indeed, it is with all the songs of these odd people. They sing to their deities and about the fairest things in nature, that inspire them to attune their souls to a harmony which,’ in spite of its customary weird- ness, has a fair share of be auty. Though some of their songs are not ancient they are undoubtedly purely In- dian melodies, little modified by Aryan influences, and as such these fragments areinteresting as musical expressions of a ‘primitive people. It is not at all likely that Zunian music may ever strike a responsive chord in the popular ear, though its infrodnetion in . fashionable concerts has served to bring to light melodies hitherto unknmown to the musical, and now preserved as scientific Tecords through the efforts of a San Fran- eisco musician. She—Oh, Jack! Do you know Mr. Gibion punctuated his tire yesterday? He—You mean punctured, my dear. She—Well, anyway, he cameto & full stop,— Bketeh., Dr. Portman—I understand that you young ladies have organized a debating sogiety. ‘What do you talk about? Ethel—Well, the subject in the last mebting ‘was, *“Which Is the More to Blame in the Pres- ent Difficulty—Spain or Venezuela?’ but we really spent most of the time talking about Dolly Darius’ new bicysle costume.—Somer- ville Journal,