May 10, 19 2 3
MUSICAL COURIER
46
to focus public opinion upon the poets and composers of our country. Surely they will accept that challenge, for they should be impelled no less by love of country than by an inspiration to enrich our song literature. Here’s hoping that they will respond to this peace-time need with the enthusiasm that they showed in wartime, when, for instance, one famous American composer said : “If I could write one song that the men would sing in the trenches I would feel that, I had done the greatest thing in my life.” Who knows but that, with such an aspiration, they will give us beautiful songs that will live always? We are taking practical means to interest the authors and composers. The former are being approached through the associations of poets and through poetry and other literary magazines ; the latter through every avenue of musical propagation.
Now for the third main point, Fostering. Unless these songs, old and new, are actually sung by the people there is little use in discovering or inspiring them. Theodore Thomas said : “Popular music is familiar music.” Let us make the best songs familiar to the public. We have high hopes of accomplishing this through the committee’s widely inclusive membership.
Now for a special application of this plan to school music supervisors. Ever since the war period, when community singing established connections between the schools and the people at large, the school authorities have felt the necessity of maintaining a contact with the desirable elements of life outside the school room. For instance, many of the supervisors continue to use occasionally with the children a few of the better popular songs. All are paying much more attention to the teaching of folk songs which the children will sing after they leave school. There is the movement among the supervisors to focus upon a comparatively small list of songs which every child should know. One of the efforts of this committee will be to ascertain just what American songs might properly belong on that list. This will undoubtedly be a guide for the supervisor who may not have the opportunity to make such a broad and intensive study. Furthermore, the resulting list of songs will be widely discussed in the newspapers. The teaching of these songs, therefore, in the school room will strengthen the feeling of a real relation of the school to life, which every good teacher is seeking for her children.
Here the committee rests its case. We hope that you will give a favorable verdict on the wisdom of its efforts. We also hope that you will give your active participation. While this campaign needs clarifying discussion, it has a still greater need. That need was expressed characteristically by Victor Herbert in accepting the invitation to membership in the committee. When asked to suggest what would most help the campaign, he made a laconic reply that .we may well take as our watchword. It was simply this : "ACTION 11!”
D. C., for a copy of the Copyright Law, you will probably find it of interest.
List of Opera Companies.
“Can_ you give me the names of local or student grand opera companies in American cities. Especially any that are well organized, financed and conducted. Will appreciate names and addresses.”
There is no list of the local or student opera companies. If there were one it would not be of permanent value, as most of the student companies exist only for a short time, during one season, there being constant changes in those attending the colleges or other educational institutions. There are, however, in some cities what might be called semi-professional companies, such as the Operatic Society of Philadelphia and the Washington Grand Opera Company, in whose productions the chorus is made up of amateur singers and students, who also sing some of the smaller roles.
TALK ON THE WORK OF THE COMMITTEE ON PEOPLE’S SONGS
Delivered by Kenneth S. Clark, of Community Service, New York City, Before the Music Supervisors’ National
Conference, Cleveland, Ohio, April II, 1923
been received from upward of fifty leaders and the composite list is here announced for the first time. The songs that received the greatest number of votes are listed in the
as follows:
There’s a Long, Long Trail Home, Sweet Home Till We Meet Again Working on the Railroad L’il Liza Jane
Columbia, The Gem of the Ocean Sweet Genevieve Goodnight, Ladies A Perfect Day
order of votes cast for each,
America, The Beautiful (“Materna”)
Old Folks at Home
My Old Kentucky Home
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Old Black Joe
America
Dixie
Star-Spangled Banner Sweet Adeline
Carry Me Back to Old Virginny
(This list does not entirely co-incide with the list as first issued and published in the Musical Courier of April 5, page 20.—Ed.)
The question arises: Does the topic of Discovering end when we have recorded only the songs which the leaders report as already being favorites with the people? May there not remain the discovery to the people of the songs which thoughtful musicians believe ought to be used in community singing, irrespective of whether or not they are now sung? For instance, the members of our committee are making up a new list, retaining the songs on the above list that they favor and adding various others. In this way we may obtain a second composite list, approached from another angle. Replies that have already come in from the committee indicate that the order of votes cast by them for the various songs will be different from that in the leaders’ list. For example, America, the Beautiful, drops from first place to seventh. That has a significance: The leaders voted almost unanimously for this song because they use it constantly and know its appeal. Moral:	“Make
good songs familiar.”
It is also a vital part of the committee’s plans to take a referendum to the people. We expect to have local voting contests through the newspapers. The combined list of songs resulting from all these inquiries is to be published by the papers for balloting. The individual will also be free to add to the ballot any additional favorites of his own. It will be interesting to see if the choice of songs varies in different sections of the country. At all events, this widespread inquiry should give us a fairly accurate opinion as to which are “the most beloved songs of the American people.”
In carrying out Part 2 of our purpose, Inspiring, we aim
Answers to letters received in this department are published as promptly as possible. The large number of inquiries and the limitation of space are responsible for any delay. The letters are answered seriatim.
In one of Deems Taylor’s recent Sunday music reviews in the New York World he reproduced a brief short story. It was found in a magazine published by the pupils of the Modern School at Stelton, New Jersey. The story, which was written by seven-year-old Maxie Steinberg, consists of the following:
“once there was a man who wanted to go to the moon he climbed on top of the house and fell off and killed himself and he said I will never do that again it is too dan-garous.”
Our friend Deems confessed that he could think of no musical moral to append to the tale. But there is a moral in the present instance, as follows: Beware of starting any musical movement that may seem as Utopian as the improving of people’s songs. It is too dangerous: Ten to one you will be misunderstood. The American people seem unable to conceive of anyone’s starting a campaign for anything— it must always be against something. It is as if one could not build a thing without destroying something else.
The committee on people’s songs grew out of the Recreation Congress at Atlantic City, which was under the auspices of Community Service and the Playground and Recreation Association of America. It was resolved “that an appeal be made to the poets and composers of America to the end that they create more songs of the people.” Moreover^ it was recommended that an organizing committee be appointed to start the ball rolling. The ball has been rolling to such effect that the Committee on People’s Songs now consists of nearly fifty leaders in music, literature, the drama and social service, including the heads of the national organizations devoted to music.
The misapprehensions to which I have alluded caused the committee to realize the necessity for preparing at once a brief statement of its purpose. It was decided first to adopt the name Committee on People’s Songs, with this supplementary statement: “Devoted to Discovering, Inspiring and Fostering Worthy Songs Which Reflect the Life and Ideals of the American People.” Next, our purpose as stated in that sub-head was elaborated as follows:
1. Discovering.
To search out through a widespread expression of public opinion the best existing songs that are suitable for community singing.
2.	Inspiring.
Through an aroused public opinion to impress the poets and composers of our country with their responsibility for creating songs which shall give voice to the life and ideals of the American people.
3.	Fostering.
To enlist the support of all sympathetic forces in the side circulation and use of songs both old and new, which win the thoughtful approval of the American people.
Coda: The purpose of song is to enrich and interpret life, both at work and at play. Songs which adequately express the varied aspects of the life of the people must therefore include not only such phases as love of country, home and fellow man, but also joy in work and zest in play.
Such is our Confession of Faith. In carrying out Article No. 1, Discovering, the committee sent a questionnaire to active leaders of community singing throughout the country. We wanted to discover which the leaders considered to be the best songs of American origin now being used in community singing. The leaders undoubtedly followed not only their own preferences but especially the desires of the people as shown by the songs which “went well.” Replies have
DEVELOPMENT OF THE VOICE
VOICES RESTORED FAULTS CORRECTED RANGE INCREASED DICTION STYLE
FLORENCE
HARRISON
New York
33 E. 38th Street
GIULIO CRIMI
Tenor, Chicago Opera Company
“It is no grateful task to take the place of the greatest tenor, but Signor Crimi gave a performance of Canio that earned him six curtain calls after the ‘Vesti la Giubba’.”•—New York American.
Available before and after the Opera Season 1923-1924
Management : R. E. Johnston 1451 Broadway .... New York City
(Knabe Piano)
About Carreño.
“Can you־ give me any information as to what year it was when Carreño first appeared in this country; an approximate date will be sufficient.”
Carreño made her first tour of the United States in 1863, when she was ten years old. One who heard her in Baltimore at that time writes “She was a beautiful little girl.” She was introduced to the audience by her father who was her first instructor in piano. One of her program numbers was a paraphrase of The Mocking Bird by Edward Hofman. Again in 1889 or 1890 she gave a recital at the Peabody Institute, that time playing a Mozart Fantasie. It was in 1911 or 1912 when she appeared in Washington at the National Theater.
The Copyright Laws.
“Kindly tell me if it is permissible to use my own orchestration for violin, piano and cello for the opera score of Madame Butterfly, by Puccini, or is it necessary that I get the orchestration from the publisher. This information will be greatly appreciated.” You cannot use your own orchestration for any copyright composition, unless you first obtain permission from the publisher. It might possibly be that a composer would object to have his music orchestrated by any outsider. He knew what he desired to express when he composed the piece and prefers his own conception of what the music means and requires. You can readily understand that if everyone could use other musicians’ ideas, what a flood of compositions would be presented to the public, none of them expressing the composer’s real meaning, and from which he derived no benefit for all his labor. The more popular or successful the work, the greater the flood. All the compositions of well known composers, and also of many less well known hut serious workers, are thoroughly protected by copyright, which is one of the first laws of self protection, for which the United States has made ample provision. In your own case it may be that you are protecting your own compositions by the use of these very laws and would resent any infringement.
The copyright laws are made very strict in regard to infringement of a copyright: “In the case of musical, choral or orchestral composition, one hu-adred dollars for the first and fifty dollars for every subsequent infringing performance; in the case of other musical compositions, ten dollars for every infringing performance.”
The penalty for wilful infringement is a rather serious matter: “Imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by a fine of not less than one hundred or more than one thousand dollars” should deter any infringement, intentionally done.
Since 1910 the United States has been active in arranging copyright treaties with foreign countries. Hungary, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, France, the latter country signing the proclamation in 1918, are all members of the International Copyright Service, whose revis:d proclamations have been made, signed, sealed and delivered since 1910. Practically every country is included in the international service, and it would be the exception if a country did not belong to the International Copyright League.
The Copyright Law book from which the information is taken is dated 1918. It may be that there have been changes since then. If you write to the Copyright Office, Library of Congress, Washington,
The Story the Petals Told
A southern ballad depicting the development of friendship into love. A sweet melody, very singable.
Published in Two Keys by
ELIZABETH FOREHAND PEGG & SON
501 West 121st Street, Morningside Heighls, New York City
GRACE
HOFFMAN
Coloratura Soprano
Specializing in
COSTUME RECITALS
Consisting of-
German	Spanish
Italian
French	English
SONGS
For Terms and Dates apply G. M. HOFFMAN
430 West 116th St., New York Tel. 4682 Cathedral
Everything fop tire Singer at
The HERBERT WITHERSPOON STUDIOS
44 West 86th Street, New York City
MISS MINNIE LIPLICH, Secretary	Telephone Schuyler 5889	MISS GRACE O’BRIEN, Assistant Secretary