ORIGIN OF TUNES

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 120, 17 November 1932, Page 21

ORIGIN OF TUNES

MUSICAL PARENTAGE

WHO COPIES WHICH ?

Kaclio has a "Tune Detective." He lias studied the ancestry of music. He specialises in the family history of melody and reveals his experiences as a broadcast talk feature at a- big American station. His studio.name is Sigmund Spaeth. He is frequently called into court on song-theft suits to prove that the pretender is not an impostor but a legitimate cousin" having the same common ancestor of a chromatic scale, says the "New York Times." This musical detective reports that many a blue-blooded operatic aria has awakened to find a jazz relation from Tin Pan Alley knocking at the door demanding recognition. And some of these offsprings have far greater earning power than the highbrow ancestor. , . "There was a good example oi; such a ease several yeara'ago, when .the" publisher of 'Sari' clearly, proved that the melody of one o£ the waltzes had reappeared almost note for lioto in- the foxtrot 'Learn to Smile,' by Lou Hirsch,'.' said Spaeth. "But there was no way of proving that Mr. Hirsch was familiar with Kalm-an's music, whereas it was a simple matter to find essentially the same melody in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and in the -work of Mozart and other classical composers. "Then there is the story of" tho European operetta composer who heard a popular American jaz? song in a cafe. He radiogrammed his New York representative to ' start auit for .plagiarism. The answer came back, ''You must wait your turn. Ten others ahead of you.' He dropped actions "Naturally there have been variations of all kinds, as this distribution went on, and until a timo reached print it was often difficult to determine just how it really went," continued Spaeth. "That is why iro have different versions of the same fune oven now, particularly in the old ballads and folk dances. The materials of music are so limited that it is difficult to say who deserves credit for inventing a melody. "Thpre are only twelve different tones_ in the scale, and these can be used in a range of loss than two octaves if a tune is to be generally singable, and hence popular. The great composers of the world all usod such limited materials with the infinite pains of genius, introducing such variety by way of rhythm, harmony, instrumental or vocal colour, and often building up a few tones into a whole symphony. The credit for the effectiveness of much popular, dance music of to-day belongs to tho arrangers, who give the tunes the orchestrations that add tremendously to their appeal." TAKEN PROM HYMNS. Spaeth asserts that many frock-coat-ed church'hymns have been leading doubUi lives among the gay night places. "How Dry I Am," the plaint of tho anti-prohibitionists, was originally ji hymn. Its opening appears in several other sacred melodies, including "Lead, Kindly Light," as well as in Pranz Lehar's "Merry "Widow" waltz. The popular Hawaiian tunes are mostly, copied from-gospel hymns that were introduced to the islands by missionaries, he explains. "Aloha Oe" was borrowed from "There's Music in the Air." . _ Aside from accidental o,r even intentional use of universal tune patterns, many striking parallels and similarities are found in the melodies of the world. Among tho classical pieces that have influenced popular tunes Spaeth lists the following (popular tunes in parentheses):—Tchaikovsky's "June Barcarolle" ("Lover Come Back to Me"),, Dvorak's "Humoresque" ("I'd Climb the Highest Mountain," "The Girl Friend," "Some One to Watch Over Me"), a Chopin "."Nocturne" ("Maytimo"), Overture ' !; to "Merry "Wives of Windsor": ("Marclieta," "What'll. I Do," "Cuban Love Song"). PATCHWORK MUSIC. The classic example of an entire tune mado up of bits of othor tunes Is ''Yes, We Have No Bananas " ("Hallelujah Chorus/1 "My Bonnie," "I Dreamt That X Dwelt in Marble' Halls," "Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party," "An Old-fashioned Garden"). Another good one is "Around the Corner" ("Mr. Dooley," "Arra Go On,-"' "Wedding March," "Solomon Levi"). All music is fashioned in patterns, therefore the tune detective listens first for the patterns of melody when looking up the family tree. "It takes as little as two tones to make a tune," Spaetli says. "The oldest tune in the world has only two tones. That is the tune the cuckoo sang in the Garden of Eden. It is also the 'come hither'- -whistle of tho whole world, and. hence the most familiar of /.all musical patterns. "By way of illustration," Spaeth continues, "here are some of the popular melodies built along the two-tone pattern: 'The Japanese Sandman,' 'Old Black Joe' (refrain), 'My Buddy,' 'Go Home and Tell Your Mother,' 'Who's Your Little Whoozis,' and 'Should I?' Many of the classics, including the opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, contains the cuckoo calls or two-tone .patterns. INSPIRED BY THE BUGLE.

"The commonest three-tone- pattern is that of the bugle. These three tones can be used in various combinations to form buglo,calls and actual melodies. Playing the thrco tones downward and then up will produce the start of the 'Star-Spanglecl Banner.' The same tones appear in slightly different ways in the German 'Watch on the Ehine,' the Imperial Russian National Anthem, 'Dixie,' 'Collegiate,' several Wagner

I motifs, ana the hymn, 'Holy, Holy', Holy.' "A common four-tone pattern is the I Westminster Chime," Spaeth adds. "By simply changing the order of these four toues you can get the complete cliimo melody or a:'.y, part of it. Play- ; ing the four toaes from the bottom u;> produces a wry old tune, now almost fcrgotte?!. This (originally a hymn, 'Oh, Pe/iec:. Day, 1 but now knowa chiefly as 'How Dry I Am') has some very distinguished musical relatives, all starting with the same four tones in the sam« order. These include 'The Merry Widow Waby,' one of Mendelssohn's Songs "Without Words, and 'Once in a Lifetime.' 'Sweet. Adeline,' has the s?.me tones backward."