The Awakening
An editorial by
James Frances Cooke
Prudery an Injury
Nothing could be
more disastrous to American music and American drama than an ear of prudery.
The kill-joy earnestness of the zealots continually seeking a Cromwell, to
exchange bloody rebellion for some other form of mental and bodily activity,
rarely lead to permanent forms of art. Every instance of narrow Puritanism,
however necessary it may have been at the time, has been suffocating to higher
artistic development. Contrast the products of our own picturesque William
Billings, with those of his European contemporaries, Haydn and Mozart.
The enemies of
prudery do not plead for licentiousness. They seek to secure decency coupled
with common sense. They do not seek to evade the broad human problems that
discipline the mind and fortify the soul. They do not strive to escape the
vital sociological questions which since the time of Euripides and Aristophanes
have been answered in the theater with the greatest possible force. The canyon between
Ibsen's Ghosts, Pinero's Second Mrs. Tanqueray, Hauptmnann's Hanele, Henry
Arthur Jones' Mrs. Dane's Defence, or even Brieux's unnecessarily clinical Les
Avaries, and some of the hopelessly degrading musical shows of the last five or
ten years is as wide and as deep as the Colorado.
How the
Objectionable Song Is Popularized
How does the
infamous song come into existence? Harry B. Smith, author of the libretto of
Robin Hood, and dozens of other pieces, has given us a hint. The composer and
the librettist hand in their completed work to the manager. The rehearsals
commence and the stage door is besieged by representatives of microscopic
publishers, all fighting like vandals to get a hearing for their songs.
Sometimes the songs have real merit, sometimes they are absolutely worthless
products of the cheapest kind of untrained intellect. Sometimes they are filled
with the venomous virus of the social ulcers of the megalopolis. Never does the
song have any direct bearing upon the subject of the libretto, or bear any
relations to the composer's musical scheme. The manager is either moved by the
personal persuasion of the publisher, the whim of one of his singer, a bribe or
his own belief that the song may "carry" the piece. In the last point
he has good precedent because some pieces have been "carried" by
particularly taking songs. Even Robin Hood owed a lot to Oh, Promise Me.
False Success
The song gets on.
The galley is packed with whistlers, claquers, etc., etc., all of them Hessian
hirelings of the song publisher. The song is greeted with a kind of uproar from
the gallery. It is demanded again and again. The people in the lower part of
the house have little idea that they are being buncoed into taking part in
making a worthless song a valuable property for some trifling publisher - soon
lend themselves to the psychological influence of the mob and find themselves
applauding sentiments they would be ashamed to think about in their own homes.
The songs has a run - some publishers report that the run rarely survives six
months. If the song is merely illiterate, meaningless, bathos or sickly
sentiment it can do but little harm, but when it is reeking with the offensive
allusions found in some of the songs of the day, it is time that a musical
Board of Health be appointed to disinfect the whole nauseous matter. We do not
believe that the people of this country want songs of the pestilential kind. We
believe that the so-called hits of this order are entirely artificial. We are
confident that the offensive musical numbers do not exist because of the
genuine demand, but because they are pounded into the people with theatrical
sledge hammers by the panderers that the respectable publishers of New York and
every other city are all anxious to annihilate.
How You May Help
Reaching the eyes
of many people, Manor Selby Journal may become a great force in safe-guarding
the spirit of decency. Its readers may take an active part in exterminating the
bad influence of the questionable song. How is it to be done? Certainly it
cannot be accomplished by muck-raking. Denouncing special songs advertises
them. Their publishers count such notoriety. In England audiences have a custom
of booing and hooting anything which does not meet popular approval. In this
country we resort to the deadly silence. Theatrical performers virtually live
upon applause. Let self-respecting people lose no opportunity to show their
attitude toward music and plays surrounding suggestive ideas and the managers
will soon have their ears to the ground.
- edited by Boulevard Denim
- edited by Boulevard Denim
