Page 584 SEPTEMBER 1920 TIIE ETUDE finished just a few moments before it was time for me to get into the cab which was drawn by a pair of tired old horses. The people were so kind and my musi-cians were so splendid that it was another red-letter day in my life and through the interest which the piano company created for me I found myself the possessor of $300.00. This amount was the beginning of my busi-ness which I started at that time in a little hall bedroom, 8 x 10 feet, with a closet just the depth of a sheet of music. I had written at that time about twenty-five songs. This constituted the stock. It seems to me that, at that time, I saw myself with shelves and shelves of music in the downstairs of a house that I had earned myself; that I should live upstairs, but that there would be a little bell on the door (such as there are in the little shops in England) and when anybody opened the door, I would rush madly down and wait upon the customer—but that never happened. What really did happen was that I moved into a larger apartment. The business was now large enough to occupy the dining room, about 14 feet square, with shelves extending around the room. We used the dining-room table for a music table between meals. I now had a son who had the ability and a desire to be of service to his mother, who came into the little shop. The shop outgrew the dining room and finally owned the whole house. From that time on, it is a very simple story. 'Nothing succeeds like success,' and the wheels had started to go around on a chariot that pulled my music down to Michigan Avenue in the business district." "It Looks So Easy" "To see the results, it all looks so easy and pleasant that many will, I am sure, feel that they might do like-wise. Alas! no one ever hears of the failures, and for one success there are perhaps a thousand tragedies. No-body ever hears of the poor wretches who virtually sell their health, minds and souls to do what I have been so blessed in doing. If you think it is easy, all I have to say is, 'Try it!' Many a time I have spent my last nickel to go down town in Chicago to meet some successful publisher, wait outside of his door possibly an hour or more, and then be told to 'call to-morrow.' "Of course, one of the things a woman has to encounter, or had to encounter a few years ago, was the idea that she should only be a home-maker and that she could not possibly do anything else, that that would occupy her entire time. This idea has passed and the world is beginning to see that a woman can be the best kind of home-maker and mother and at the same time a successful professional woman. In fact, we all know and still believe that the best place on earth is home, and that the woman who does make of herself a real home-maker and a mother who has the entire confidence of her children is the one most capable and efficient in going into the world as a professional woman. I believe that anyone who has the ability to truly under-stand the heart of a child has the gift of helping humanity. "In regard to women's clubs—personally I owe them a debt. I do not know for how many I have sung in the last twenty years, nor of how many I am an honorary member, but through this experience I have found that my simple home songs have made an appeal. These women know that the heart of a song is melody. A song without an appeal is dead. It must have the human touch. Why is it you sing a simple song or whistle a familiar tune? Most often it is to cheer yourself, some-times because you are especially happy, but if the little song brings a picture to your memory, of an incident, then it has found its mission. Most people feel instinct-ively that music is the natural source of expression. The result is song. If you are musical and know how, you can perhaps preserve the sentiment and the melody of your own thoughts; and this is the basis of the highest composition, whether you are a McDowell or Stephen Foster. The multitude needs music—perhaps more than the cultured few. This inference has been the working principle of my life, to supply that need out of my own heart and now I feel that if I were given my choice, I would say, 'let me write the simple songs for the people rather than the intricate and curious pieces which only the critics extol for their eccentricities.' John Howard Payne, whose cousinship I claim, wrote 'Home, Sweet Home.' I am sure that even one of the great musicians would have been proud to contribute to the world the comfort that simple song has given. The Human Message "Americans may well be proud of the high technical attainments of our composers. All they need is the en-couragement of the great music producers, and they should be kindly criticized where criticism is needed. But some of our very greatest American works have touched only the thin veneer of our great American public. They are prone to write themselves above their hearts. The real problem is, how to reach the masses with a broad, human message, and I believe the way to do this is to get their interest in simple understandable ways. "Would it not be splendid if the great symphony orches-tras would give, occasionally during each season, programs of simple music with admission within the reach of all. Would it not be wonderful if, every little while, the seats downstairs for grand opera could be sold at a nominal sum within the reach of the poor and tired who take almost their very last dollar and almost their last bit of strength, and climb to the topmost gallery to refresh their souls. They are the real music lovers, so why not give them a chance more often than we do to enjoy in comfort the music that they starve to hear. If we really want the masses to understand the best in music these things will have to be done for them. The wonderful education given by the phonograph and the elevation that these instruments have produced in the minds of the people should be proof enough to great musical organizations that they can help advance the higher class of music in our country if they would only begin. We must get out and preach the gospel of everything in a loving and understanding way, not with condemnation, but with sympathy. The Importance of Good Friends "Often one hears the story of a 'self-made man' or woman. Of course, you have to be a worker for your-self, you have to get up earlier and go to bed later and keep yourself constantly thinking in order to succeed, no matter how many good friends you have, because, unless you prove to your friends that you are in earnest, they will not and cannot give their time to helping you. I have found the most wonderful friends, and I am quite sure they have befriended me because they knew I was willing to befriend myself. Nobody in the world is just 'self-made.' Good friends are the greatest asset. I do not mean that they should give you money or that they should give you a position, but that, if you are worthy, they will make it possible for you to help yourself. I wish I could have the time and space to enumerate all of the good friends that I have had. That would be impossible, but I must say a few words for those great artists who came to my rescue at the beginning of my career. "The one who came to my assistance first was Jessie Bartlett Davis. It was she who loaned me $250, and it was this money that made it possible for me to pub-lish my first little book, called Seven Songs. It was a long time before I was able to return that loan, but it was given to me in such a manner that I knew I never had to worry about it. You know there is a great deal in the way you help a person. I know many who have been helped, but who have also heard of it many times from their helpers. A grateful person is glad to tell the world of the kind things that have been done for them, but it certainly hurts to have it told about you and 'rubbed in.' The next great person to help me was Mr. David Bispham, who sang my songs, as you have been told in the former part of this article. Then came Madame Schumann-Heink who, for many years has been my good friend, singing my songs as only she could sing them. I have spoken of these artists espe-cially because they were the first people to help me. NOT only human beings, but gods as well, have sought and found solace in music. The love of music is by no means confined to this sphere, but reaches out to the other orbs of the universe, if myths, legends and theologies are to be believed. All nations had deities of music; in cultured Greece, in wicked Babylon, and in dark Africa, shrines were erected to these potent gods. The Greeks had an intense love for music. Apollo, god of music and poetry, drew sweet, plaintive melo-dies from his lyre; Orpheus, enamored of Eurydice, played his instrument with such fervor that rocks, trees and waters were moved by the ecstatic cadence of his soulful numbers; Erato, Mistress of Lyric Poetry, found joy in the lyre, while Euterpe, Mistress of Song, found consummate bliss in the shrill tone of the flute. However, not all Greek deities used instru-ments ; some were noted for the power of their voices. v rhilomela, changed to a nightingale by kind gods, sang in soft, dulcet tones pleasing to the ear; the Sirens' voices enchanted all who heard their songs, while "And then, after I had gained some confidence in myself, I was asked to sing for Miss Margaret Anglin (who later proved to be one of my greatest friends. She immediately said, 'If you will come to New York you shall have the use of my little theatre (which was the Bijou, situated on Broadway), and give some matinées.' For three matinées she came to personally direct the setting of the little stage for my recitals. She sent word to three charitable asso-ciations offering to give them a percentage of the receipts if they would allow their names to be used. This was very clever advertising as I was absolutely unknown in New York City. Out of these recitals I cleared several hundred dollars. It always seemed to me that these 'several hun-dred dollars' were offered to me when I most needed them. You may not know that I was desperately poor for seven years and at that time almost an invalid. Some Principles of Success "This is a day when magazines are flooded with pre-scriptions for success. I am frequently asked the source of power which has brought success to me. Of course, success is never to be attributed to any one thing but to a great many things, all backed by hard work, pa-tience, tact, etc. However, though all of these may be in your possession, you will never be a success in music or anything else, unless you have the one im-portant thing, spirit, for, after all, the one thing for which you deserve credit is the gift of the spirit of truth which is active within you. If, in your soul, you are free from guile, jealousy, false pride and hate, and if you work to do good for the greatest number of your fellow-beings, this will be reflected in every-thing you undertake. "This article might not be considered complete unless I said a word for the song that has proven my greatest success, A Perfect Day. So many wild stories have been told about this simple song, which was truly writ-ten for a place card at a dinner which was given upon the return from my first visit to Mt. Rubidoux, where I saw the sunset from that lovely California mountain for the first time. This little verse, which was writ-ten at the Mission Inn, Riverside, in about five minutes, was put away with many other rhymes I had written, and it was some months before I ever thought of it again. The music came to me as I was driving across the Mojave desert in the moonlight, with another party of nature-loving friends. I began to hum the verse of A Perfect Day to the original tune and one of my friends said, 'Is that a new song?' And I said 'maybe it is.' I completed the song before I went to sleep that night, and from the very first, as I sang it, I was confident of its appeal and that thousands of other people besides myself had had at least one 'Perfect Day.' "And now to tell you the really greatest of all things to come to me through A Perfect Day. On November 11th, 1918, the day the Armistice was signed, my son was in New York City, standing at the head of Central Park, when four men put their arms around each other's waists and began marching and singing A Perfect Day. My son joined them and they gathered singing men until they landed down at Madison Square with over 5,000 in that serpentine line all singing my song. When my son tele-graphed me this news I said, 'This is the end of A Perfect Day for me.' " Echo's sweet and elusive strains lapped the soul in dreamy bliss. The merry god Pan, with his syrinx or shepherd's pipes, and Hermes, the inventor of the lyre, were both worshiped by the ancient Greeks. Nor was the love of music kept within the confines of ancient Greece; away to the eastward, in the Land of Mysteries, Egypt, dwelt gods and goddesses whose love of music was a passion. Isis, the goddess doubly sacred—as a deity and as a woman—always .carried a sistrum ii\ her hand. Her votive priestesses in their love temples on the Nile played on gilded sistrums as they sang soft hymns of praise to the mother goddess. In the Rhineland, too, there are music myths; the Lorelei, daughters of the Rhine, captured the hearts of all their auditors by the impassioned eloquence of their seductive voices. And thus through all the cycles of romantic myths, we find constant reference to music; the Spirit of Music dwelt everywhere—in the north, east, south and west—all nations lay offerings at her feet, place laurel wreaths on her head and erect shrines in her honor. TEACHERS who drill their pupils in the "circle of the fifths" will be interested to know that the Chinese are said to have used "circles of fifths" in their teach-ing "thousands of years ago." This must have been even before the modern conception of the scale, as em-ployed by the Greeks, was worked out in any way. Organ recitals are not new in their popularity. The great Frescobaldi (1583-1644), when he appeared in Rome at St. Peters, is said to have drawn crowds as large as 30,000. Frescobaldi is known as the "Father of the Organ Voluntary." Shaped notes, that is notes of square, lozenge, round Fugitive Musical Facts and other forms than the conventional notes, are hardly known to most people of the musical world. Yet they were strongly endorsed and introduced by Lowell Mason to help in teaching sight seeing, and they are still used in enormous quantities in the South in rural districts. The scheme of the shaped note is to represent the different degrees of the scale by means of a different shape note. For anyone who has passed the most elementary stages in scale study the plan is quite useless in understanding-tonalities, intervals, etc., and it is not used in the large music centers to any appreciable extent. Music and the Gods By Howard W. Roper
< Page 6 | Page 8 >