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MUSICAL COURIER
June 1, 1922
JAZZ MUSIC AND ITS RELATION TO AFRICAN MUSIC
By Nicholas G. Taylor of Sierra Leone, South Africa
nection between “jazz” music and his own. On the other hand, African music is cross-rhythmic, its use of syncopation is decidedly moderate and the rhythmical contents of many a bar of African music is as irregular as it could be. Again, owing to the use of cross rhythms, the periods and phrases are explained in a different method from that employed in “jazz” music.
The American Negroes brought over from Africa this music with its cross rhythms. Here they were surrounded with a different idiom; they had to face different conditions and the atmosphere in which they lived was a decided contrast to the environments that they had about them in their native land. The result is that they began to reduce African music to suit their new conditions and this is how they did it:
When the African says:
EX.i
±4, h r : ff-							
	1	At¿■					J	etc
Jazz reduces it to:
ËX 2					
¿r		—kj -J 1 ^	<	n i j*	è J etc
-* When I ËX 3 ,	îe says:	-	t-U		etc ״ • 1
		=№=		l.	
Jazz has it : EX 4.
This method of reduction—this system by which everything is to be brought within the confines of man’s limited knowledge so as to be suitable to the conditions of" hi? environment, gives the clue as to the only link (and a most important one, too) between African music and “jazz” music. That neither Example 1 nor Example 3 is respectively the same as Example 2 or Example 4 is evident to any thoughtful musician. Thus far has European music been so influenced by African music as to produce “jazz” which is popular American music. And “jazz” music havr ing once been so deduced takes its own course and at the present time has nothing more or less in common with African music Is it also true of peoples as well as of music?
But this process of reduction is termed the development of science. Well, be it so!
Copyrighted, 1922, by The Musical Courier Company.
If, in the singing of the spirituals and in many other instances, the intelligence of the audience is insulted by the making of different motions of the body, is it to be wondered that in dancing more movements are inserted than the dance forms provide? “Jazz” music therefore, being closely associated with the much abused dances, is condemned. This same association of ideas brought about the condemnation of contemporary church music by the׳ Council of Trent on account of the fact that the Canti Firmi were associated with secular ideas and the compositions were found to be out of place in the mass though they would be welcome in their own atmosphere. That was a deplorable day for church music, a condition of things which was only remedied by Palestrina’s genius. And this condemnation of “Jazz” music will be all the more necessary in respectable circles until some musical genius in America brings out its possibilities.
The Negro Musician (June, 1921) printed the following about “jazz” music:
The Negro Musician has no apology to offer for the consideration of popular music in these columns. Despite its restricted forms and transitory appeal, we believe with the Boston Transcript that the time has passed when even learned critics cry out upon ragtime. The time is here when they study it and seriously announce that it demands consideration for its genuine art possibilities. The Negro Musician further believes that the teacher who fears the influence of ragtime and thus denies its possession _ of any merit, encourages a curiosity which does harm to the very ideals he claims to foster.
. . . Therefore, embrace; study, improve and utilize its values. Teach its source, history and influence, hut point to its limitations and instruct of its harm as a lone medium of expression.
But the Musical Courier has asked me the question which this article is designed to answer: How far “jazz” music is traceable to the influence of African music.
Back to Africa.
Some think that this “jazz” music is leading the generation to the African jungle, but I believe that the more “jazzy” the music, the more distant it is from that of the African jungle; which of these is nearer the truth could be proved by a reference to the musical examples of Chindon songs contained in the late Natalie Curtis’ book, published by G. Schirmer and entitled “Songs and Tales from the Dark Continent.”
I shall leave out of consideration the question of idiom which at once decides that “jazz” music is not African music, but I shall deal with the question of rhythm, as this makes “jazz” music more closely allied to African music than to any other. I shall also be reticent about the philosophical question as to association of ideas, as that is purely a question of environment.
Man’s capacity for knowledge being limited, it has been the foremost concern of the masses to reduce everything to its lowest terms in order to understand it. Seers, prophets, teachers and the geniuses of every age have endeavored to infuse new life into this seemingly commonplace material; the respective generations of every age call them modern, but before long even they themselves take to the teachings of their leaders and then begin to reduce those teachings also to their lowest terms. Of course, this will continue until there be no more sea.
More Syncopation.
“Jazz” music makes use of syncopation to a marked degree more than African music pretends to do. It is regular in its accents and the rhythmical contents of its bars; it is mostly of the four-and-eight bar^ period. All these things, together with the question of idiom, are so foreign to the native African that he scarcely recognizes any con-
of the means of its interpretation that will give him ability' to use the expanding organ as it deserves. He must buildj however, on the firmest of foundations, knowing and playT ing in true organ style the works of Bach, the old masters, Franck and the moderns. The modern organist as an accompanist for motion pictures must also become- in a measure a skilled adapter of music to the purposes to which it is put. Improvisation is a great gift, only in part to be acquired in later life, but musical memory, fine taste in choice of music for special uses and equal taste in using it, are things that can be taught and learned.
“Each craftsman is, of course, most enthusiastic about his own craft. I am confessedly fixed in belief that in no de־-partment of music education and of music interpretation, for public enjoyment and growth in appreciation of the, best is there a greater opportunity than lies before the organist of today. In a way we are pioneering. We have means that our elder brothers, great as they were, never, had. I firmly believe that we shall soon see compositioij. for the organ with the scope in instrumental variety and, the freedom in style that orchestral composition has at-¡ tained. And we must be ready with a musicianship in-performance that shall interpret such music worthily.”
Montclair Players Give “The Dragon”
The Montclair Players presented for their fourth program of the season 1921-22 “The Dragon,” a play in three acts by Lady Gregory, at the Montclair Club Hall, on the evenings of May 16 and 17. The cast included Robert G. Bellah, Mrs. W. Maxwell Reed, Althea Brodsky, Henry Hall, Mrs. William S. Brayton, Vivian Sou-vage, Paul H. Gallien, Daniel C. Knowlton, Hugh F. Burtis, William Reeks, Anna Harris, Cassendra Kins-; man, Roger Brigham, George Williams and John LeFoy Brower. The musical program for the evening was furnished by the Montclair Players’ Orchestra, the personnel of which is Spaulding Frazer, conductor; Mrs. Spaulding Frazer, accompanist; Dorothy Case, Mrs. Von Breda; Kloff, Bertha Mendelsohn, Walter J. Mosenthal, J. B. D, Pennink, Cornelia Shaw, Mrs. Cecil Smith and Mr. and Mrs. F. Stoddart Smith and Mrs. C. C. Wendelhack, violins; Cecil Smith and Ferdinand C. Wieland, violas; Howard M. Thomas and H. R. Waeber, Cellos; Stanton M. Smith, bass viol; E. Walter Morris, flute; C. N. Jolliff, trumpet.
devices of the modern organ make possible control of great varieties of tone, but there are also in our organs great varieties to use. I am not thinking here of the so called trap attachments but rather of the fundamental tone qualities of various stops which the builders have worked to bring to an imitative perfection, so that a string tone is really of string quality and an oboe has close kinship to the tone of the instrument from which the stop takes its name. Percussion attachments have their uses in enabling the player to get certain effects, and. properly used, are an asset_ to any large theater organ; but they are only accessories and should be used as such—not exploited. Any organ, however, whether used in concert hall or theater, should contain all the essential qualities of the historic instrument, fine rich diapason, ensemble reeds and mixtures.
“All over the land great organs are being built in auditoriums intended for use in giving communities a comprehensive musical program. Some years ago we saw the first civic organist called into service; since that time the practice of maintaining a municipal organ and a skilled player to make it fulfill its possibilities in giving the people fine music has become more general. Then came the organ in the motion picture theater. Now we are seeing the upgrowth of real orchestras in motion picture theaters, but I maintain that the organ brought the orchestra; that it was the love of orchestral combinations of tone, of orchestral music, that was instilled by the organs that developed the public demand for orchestral accompaniment to motion pictures. In the larger theaters we have now the combination of organ and orchestra, and we are now only at the beginning of testing the possibilities of such a combination of resources. Here in Rochester, in the Eastman Theater, we shall have unsurpassed resources for accompanying motion pictures, and we are looking forward to giving the public music of high standard but at the same time music that can be enjoyed and appreciated.
“With the widened field for organ performance comes an added responsibility to the organ teacher which I think we realize. Resources rivaling those of the orchestra can only be used by a player whose knowledge includes an appreciation of tone—a much rarer appreciation than may be supposed. With a great artist like Joseph Bonnet at the organ, new beauties in beautiful music are revealed more completely the greater the resources of the instrument at his command. It is a part of modern organ teaching to add to the student’s equipment in mechanical adeptness a knowledge of music of all ages and for all instruments and
T
׳ HE over-insistence of syncopation in both the primary as well as the secondary accents of a measure, the too tacit employment of transitional dominants and the frequent use of triplet appogiaturas in the bass before the principal accent of a measure (which, by the way, is more often than not given to the trombones in^ nearly all orchestral arrangements of “jazz” music by American Negro musicians, a serious abuse of that instrument), are the principal characteristics of a species of musical compositions which is called “Jazz Blues,” “Mammy Blues,” “Father Blues,” and many other capricious names which the curious student fails to find in any musical cyclopaedic dictionary.
In New York, at least, this “jazz” music has been the subject of much controversy of late, both by the press and the pulpit—some denouncing, others commending.
But what is the matter with this music that has evoked so much comment? Has syncopation never been used in music before with such frequency, or is it because the harmonies sometimes employed are rancid and sea-sick, as Wagner’s music was described by some in the latter part of the last century? When the attention is directed to the study of Bach’s well-tempered clavier more syncopation will be observed than has ever been used in the whole realm of “jazz” music; and as for the harmonies, “jazz” composers are well conservative when it is remembered that some composers of the present day use wdiat I may term chords of the “twenty-second,” and abandon as common place those of the
seventh and ninth.
Musically, in my opinion, there is nothing the matter with this kind of composition. Some are dull and commonplace enough, but a good lot of them are interesting just as in any other branch of musical composition. Some day some real musical genius will bear out this contention. First and foremost, this is the real popular music in America, and as the people take to it and still clamor for it, it will hold its place.
The whole matter then turns upon the question of associa^ tion. “Jazz” music is more closely associated with the dance forms—the fox-trot, the one-step and other steps. These dances are all harmless in their way, but the dancers who make more motions with their bodies than the dance steps provide, whose posture in dancing is repugnant to any sense of respectability, are the real cause of the nuisance—not the dance forms, nor the music. And yet the cry and everything else is directed at the harmless species of musical composition which is the real popular music in America.
But does the music itself suggest the different motions of the body which are made in dancing? This is a question for experts to decide. Harry T. Burleigh, in his preface to some arrangements of Negro spirituals, wrote to the effect that the making of different motions by swinging the head on one side, then the other, as was customary in singing the spirituals, are to be deprecated, inasmuch as such_ manner of_ singing the spiritual is altogether inconsistent with the spirit and meaning of them and does not add one inch to their effectiveness, but rather detracts from them the original purpose which they are intended to serve.
I was once invited by a member of the orchestra to a matinee concert given by the Southern Syncopated Orchestra in London and it was really amusing to see_ how one of the banjo players tossed his instrument in the air and did so many funny things during the course of the performance. Being ignorant as to what all this meant, I asked a neighbor: “Is it thus that musicians perform in England?” “No.” said he. “it is the effect of the music. This music is wonderful.” I thought it strange that performers should turn somersaults in the concert halls. One prefers to see those
things in the music halls.
ORGAN PLAYING HAS INTERESTED PUBLIC IN GOOD MUSIC
Eastman School Destined to Be Great Factor in Developing Organists
The Eastman School of Music at Rochester, N. Y., has the best equipped organ department of any music school in the world. In the school building there are no less than twelve new organs—a four-manual instrument in Kilbourn Hall, two three-manual studio instruments for the teachers, Joseph Bonnet and Harold Gleason, and nine two-manual instruments for the students’ practice, each installed in a separate practice studio. Next door, in the Eastman Theater, rapidly nearing completion, the largest moving picture house organ in the world is being assembled and will be ready for use when the theater opens in September. Incidentally. George Eastman, founder of the school, has always been greatly interested in organ music, and has in his own home the largest organ that exists anywhere in a private house. Harold Gleason, the faculty member at the head of the organ department—M. Bonnet is a guest teacher—was speaking recently of the marked development of organ playing in the United States.
“In one of the infrequent interviews which Arturo Toscanini granted while he was on tour in this country with the Scala orchestra, he expressed himself as surprised at the wide acquaintance the American music public had with orchestral music, and presumed the reproducing machine had most to do with the spread of such knowledge since no large number of the cities in this country supported large orchestras. Unquestionably the mechanical players which are to be found in such large proportion of the homes of our people have been a tremendous aid to acquaintance with good music of all kinds, orchestral music with the rest; and, too, our great orchestras travel more extensively than they used to do. But there is an agent for the spread of knowledge of orchestral music in communities that have little or no opportunity of hearing orchestras which is peculiarly American in origin and use, and it is not, I believe, given credit for all it is accomplishing.
“This agent is the organ—the new type of organ, which is so mechanically equipped that a skilled player can manipulate its resources of tone to obtain results quite effectively suggestive of the instrumental combinations used by composers of orchestral music. Not only do the mechanical