MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2717, 11 March 1916, Page 9

MUSIC.

TBt Treble CMr.l Is Ragtime a Crime? Is ragtime a crime? Does it debase' music.il tasto? Dogs it keep tho public from buying good music? Is it debauching our children and spoiling them as future concert-goers? Would symphony fare better if ragtime were suppressed? Would more songs and piano pieces by MacDowell be bought if there were fewer compositions by Irving Berlin on sale? We wonder. The facts seem to be (says the New York "Musical Courier") tliat while the great popularity of ragtime began about a dozen years ago, and has been growing apace ever since—with 110 present visible sign of cessation—tlie great uplift in the higher forms of nrasic kept abreast all the time ill this country witli the onward march of ragtime; Never before has ragtime b°en as much in vogue as now, and never before have symphony concerts and artist recitals been as abundant as now. and as well patronised in proportion to their number. Most musicians who '■oiidemn rnetime do so unreservedly, p,nd make 110 distinction between bad ragtime and good rautime. In fact, we can go a step further' and assert that the majority of musicians do not even know what ragtime is Ask them, and they will reply: "Ragtime is syncopation." It is not, as you will prove very quickly if you invite the musician to play ragtime'for you. In nine cases out of ten he is : not able to do so. One clever writer in "The Bellman" believes that real American music will develop out of rag-time, fie writes: "Our swift motion,' our sudden stops, our unexpected turnings, if controlled by some clear and definite purpose, may be dynamically sound. This may b'o the true American rhythm, and when it is once recognised and valued it will 110 longer be travestied, but expressed in music that is. popular in the organic sense of_ the word. As wo all know, syncopation is in itself a perfectly legitimate modification of any given rhythm." More Patriotic Songs. Still the flood of patriotic songs continues to'flow. Of two received this week one song with a right good swing - has been composed by Henry C. Goffin, who is the conductor of the local Salvation Army Band, to words' breathing ' a loyal sentiment, written by Mr. H. Warren Kelly, of Wellington. The name of the song is "The Sailor," and tiico many other tributes to the men of •' Navy, is written in six-eight time. It has a bright, stirring melody—that is easy to pick up, aßlf"not at all difficulfc to sing. Another offering comes from the publishing house of • Paling ! and Co., Sydney, and is a marching j song entitled "Left, Left, Left!" writ- 1 ten 5y W. M. Fleming to the music of 1 Fred. C. Burry, of Sydney. The song j has a "Slie lilt, an 3 should sound well when_sung by a crowd of soldiers on 1 the march. ' , ' RussTan Music in New Yorki j What with "Pffitce Igor," "Boris Godotmoff," the Diaghiletf Ballet, now I en route for Now 'York, and the iin- ; pending concerts of the Russian Sym- |; phony Orchestra, Muscovite music is I i playing a big role over here this season_ [says the New York "Post"). ' ' Nothing could Tie more timely under , these circumstances than the publication of a hook on Russian music. When it bears the name of Arthur Pougin, as 1 does the "Short History of Russian ] Music" just issued in a good translation of Lawrence Howard by Bren- 1 tano's, it is doubly welcome. M. Pou- { gin is a scholarly critic (he wrote the c Supplement to the monumental "Bio- I graphie universelle des Jlusiciens" of . Fetis), and ho has plenty of tho Gallic t senso of humour and tarcasm which t are necessary for treating tho most.im- s portant phase of Russian musical his- r £ory—the great war between the cosmo- r politan musical geniuses, • Rubinstein t and Tchaikovsky in one camp, and the 1 formerly, so-called "Young Russian a School" in tho other—a school of which r the leaders were Balakfreff, Cesar Cui, li Moussorgsky, : Borodin, and Rimsky- r Korsakoff. Those men looked upon v themselves (at least some of them did) q as tho "Big Five." With touching n modesty they called themselves Mogouchaya fcoushka, "Tho Powerful Group." e I'liey formed a mutual admiration so- t ciety, and looked with contempt on the \ works of those not included in their r circle. a A Clftad Composer. Commenting oil the first performanco by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, in " lioston, of Edgar Stillman Kclley's New England Symphony, Olin Downes writes in "Musical America": ■, * Tho symphony is a work which ivill occupy a significant position in the his- j Lory of American music. It is the ac-, <, ;omplishmciit of a composer of the old- B 3r generation of Americans, whose musi;al workmanship is that of a master of q his means, and who has boon perhaps Lho most progressive in spirit of the j 5 'roup of men who were the first to give tho American composer an honourable yi iwl important position in his art. Years j, igo, when symphonic poems and French mpressionism were not by-words and y stand-bys, Mr. Kclley was writing music s | ;o individual and daring that it must v , lave seemed impudent, indeed, to tho j] icdants of the period. His "Aladdin" j, nusic is a case in point. His "Aladdin" tl nusic is a case in point. That score is j,, i matter, of wonder on account of its a] pialities of individual humour and fan- , v :nsy, its astonishing technical work- S1 nanship, its modern tendency. An ln \morican capable of producing this icore, at. any period, is a man to reckon p. vitli. The . nHiesf'nl colouring of the „■ *few England Symphony is austere, ai'd V( s in excellent conformance with the v.iubivi wid idsals at theorist iui