AMERICAN COMPOSITION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22350, 22 February 1936, Page 36 (Supplement)

AMERICAN COMPOSITION

PLACE IN MUSICAL WORLD An estimate of America's musical accomplishments is made by Mr. Eric Clarke in " Music in Everyday Life,' a work sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation. : . . <. Where does American composition stand?" be asks. "To judge fairly we must think of it internationally;— only by mentally crossing the Atlantic and looking from there can we survey our music with' the same impartiality that we show* toward the product of European countries. In this light, young though we are in music, we have already an interesting record. Four distinct claims may be entered. "American musio is noteworthy, first, in sentimental song and minstrelsy, typified by the tunes of Stephen Foster; second, in the spirituals and jubilees of the American Negroes; third, in a revolutionised military band music, notably in the six-eight march developed by John Philip Sousa; and fourth, in the application of new dance rhythms, a process which began with rag-time and other syncopation a generation ago and continues to-day its influence on Occidental music. No record such as this could have been achieved by any but a musical nation. Clearly, therefore, America must be one."