THREE MONOGRAPHS
I.—DRAMATIZING COMMUNITY SONG
By Percy MacKaye
The allurement of the communal field in drama is its freshness of opportunity—its infinite potential variety.
Definitions have not yet hedged it; criticism has not yet charted, nor pedagogy catalogued its boundless horizons and creative streams; commercialism has not yet invaded its unstinted harvests, to store and can them for the market, under the labels of middlemen.
So, in approaching this realm of “The Evergreen Tree,” I have felt something of that thrill of discovery which must more often have been felt in earlier days on American soil: a feeling, I think, such as John Muir once told me he experienced when he gazed first, from the top of a great tree, over uncharted miles of the redwood region. Only here I have seemed to look upon the conjoining of a great, structural continent—the Drama—with a primal sea—the tides of Community Song, now carolling in quiet inlets, now choral with tempestuous music from fathomless deeps.
If, then, I were to suggest the nature of this kind of community drama by a topographical line, rather than by a definition of theory, I would do so perhaps by a line such as this:
wherein the rising pyramid would represent an emerging contour of that continent (the Drama), whose base is submerged and fused with those singing tides (Community Music).
So perhaps, as dramatist, I might suggest the coming together of those two realms or “movements” of social art, to which my friend Arthur Farwell refers in his comments, as composer.
Obviously, this coming together implies a new technique of the community dramatist—a technique not for a hollowed amphitheatre (that of the traditional theatre), but for a level assembly place (that of the cathedral): where visually, from a floor thronged with choral communicants, there rises a sharp focal point of dramatic action—a small raised stage, for such few acting characters as are typical of the community dramatic ritual.
So the setting of the Masque takes form according to its nature (as indicated by the Ground Plan opposite page 69, and by the worded description in the front of this volume). And so, as the dramatic architect by his design shapes the conditions for the coöperation of the composer, he shapes also the conditions for the coöperation of the scenic producer—in this case, Robert Edmond Jones, whose fresh and fertile genius becomes in a production as significant for the eye as the creative ardor of Arthur Farwell does for the ear.
In the following pages, each of these representative artists describes briefly his distinctive approach and viewpoint toward the ensemble production. As well as may be in brief space, we hope thus to suggest—for all who read the Masque with a view to its performance on however simple a scale—something of our own feelings for the right creative and interpretive approach to this fresh field, in which we are planning to coöperate personally in at least some one production of “The Evergreen Tree.”
In the pioneering attempt of this Masque, my own purpose is to dramatize community singing—for conditions of our own time, especially in America, during this new, formative period which the world war has begun.
In other lands and ages of folk art, community song has been dramatized, as it can only be dramatized vitally, by artists moved by the spirit of religion; and relics of such forms still survive amongst us in rituals of the churches. But these rituals necessarily have attained their growth—nobly classic at their best, at their worst—dully disintegrated.
Now new forces of an age religiously urgent for democracy demand a re-creation of the forms of folk art, plastic to the living currents of the new time. These currents, though continuous from the past, widen now between strange banks and other horizons; though perennial, they require fresh coördination.
The carol, for instance, and the ballad—old forms of folk art—survive with us only in their archaic appeal. We in America cannot hope or wisely desire to revive them for what they once were—spontaneous expressions of continuous communal life in villages and peasant heaths, for that life has gone from us, not to return. But we can do this—and in so doing, give them new life. We can relate them definitely to a form of art for us still living and indigenous—to the drama, and essentially to that community kind of drama which is but now beginning its renascence of world forms portentous for the future.
So in “The Evergreen Tree,” perhaps for the first time, I have embodied the acted carol and the acted ballad as structural parts of a dramatic unity—a communal dramatic unity, to which the forms of folk music are allied and essential.
Here, then, comes into being a new kind of music drama—far removed from the connotation of opera—a Song Drama of the people. From this, speech will not be absent; but it will necessarily be related to the simplicity of folk song and folk poetry, in being rhythmic and chantable in its cadences—taking on forms of spoken poetry definitely related to the people’s poetry of song.
This Song Drama, too, of its nature—though susceptible of splendid pageantry—will depend, for its dramatic conflict, far less on wills opposed in visual action than on contrasted emotions of song—of choral song, thus bringing again the Chorus back to its rightful place, heard and visible, among the people—as with the Greeks; only now for us it becomes a double Chorus, oppositional in will and definitely divided in two parts (the antiphonal Choruses, A and B, of this Masque, costumed also in visual contrast), until its parts become reconciled in emotion, when—both aurally and visibly—the two unite, as at the end of “The Evergreen Tree.”
This much at least expresses my conception of a new art implied in the present work—not as an a priori theory, nor as a generalization for others—but as the working method which has seemed for me best adapted to perform a definite task in the community field involved.
The theme of the Masque I will only touch upon here to say that, in inventing its legend of Caspar and Claus, I hope I may not wholly miss that unconscious approval, which would be dearer than any other—the belief of the children.
Cornish, N. H.,
September, 1917.
II.—COMMUNITY MUSIC AND THE COMPOSER
By Arthur Farwell
The birth of our national self-consciousness in music, from the creative standpoint, occurred less than twenty years ago. Not until the last two decades did the prodigious musical studies of our young people at home and abroad produce composers in sufficient quantity to make American music, its character and potentialities, a national question.
Even so brief a period as this has, however, sufficed to witness a succession of distinct phases in our national musical attitude and achievement, phases so strongly contrasted as to represent radical changes of artistic tendency and almost complete reversals in belief and direction of effort.
The last and greatest of these changes is that one which has withdrawn attention from the composer as an abstract phenomenon, and from fruitless theories of American music, and has centered it upon the immediate service which music can render to the people of our nation. In the long run, the nation cannot go one way and its music another. That the ideal in the spirit of music must sooner or later, in this country, be reconciled to and wedded with the ideal of the spirit of democracy, is an idea which has met with general acceptance only in the last three years, although it has been ardently championed by a few individuals for nearly two decades.
Taking its rise in the compelling necessity of this principle, the “community music” movement has swept the country in the last few years, plunging it anew into violent discussion, annihilating personal theories and products of the musical hot-house, demanding the wholesome and the true—and giving the people expression.
In this movement the composer of the music for “The Evergreen Tree” has been immersed. In the communal dramatic work and ideas of Percy MacKaye, he has recognized a similar development in the art of the theatre. It was inevitable that these two movements should come together and unite their powers in seeking to make a helpful contribution to the quest for a drama—and should it not truly be a music drama?—that shall serve most appropriately the deep need of the American people for expression in such a form.
Anything which may prove to be of worth in my compositions for “The Evergreen Tree,” I owe to the new influx of life which I have received from my contact with the soul of the people, as revealed in the movement which is making us a singing nation.
Cornish, N. H.,
September, 1917.
III.—DESIGNS FOR “THE EVERGREEN TREE”
By Robert Edmond Jones
The drawings in this book will prove most helpful if they are thought of merely as notes to be amplified or varied according to the special needs of each community production.
Different communities will develop the main scheme in various ways.
The production indicated here is on a large scale in the open air; but the arrangement of stages and aisles is equally impressive in the smallest church.
Facilities for lighting will vary widely in different communities.
Don’t be discouraged if you haven’t an elaborate electric equipment at your disposal. Think how beautiful the Masque might be, done by candle-light in an old country meetinghouse!
The costumes are extremely simple, and depend largely for their effectiveness on the dignity with which they are worn.
The two Choruses wear surplice-like over-garments, red or white. Elf suggests a butterfly: Gnome, a beetle: Tree, a Fra Angelico angel. Wolf, Bear and Lion wear masks, rudely made, like mummers of the Middle Ages. Wolf’s tail is attached to a belt, which he pulls from side to side.
Gnome Tree Elf
Tree wears green hose bound with silver thongs, a green smock on which the tree symbol is embroidered in silver, and flat silver wings. Later, Tree appears in a white smock with the symbol in gold. Gnome wears loose green trousers, a long tunic striped black and white and two long coats, orange over green. The hood has eyes of red, white and black at the sides. Elf wears a white smock with silver bells (mute) and butterfly spots of red and black.
Bear Wolf Lion
The three beasts wear masks of white cloth stretched over a foundation of cardboard or buckram. Wolf wears a blue-and-white striped jerkin over blue leggings bound with white, and a big gray tail, fastened to a belt. Bear has a padded gray coat over loose padded leggings. Lion’s jerkin and hose are gray, with fringes and thongs of red.
Joseph Mary Shepherds
Joseph, Mary and the Shepherds wear semi-circular cloaks over long, loose under-robes. Joseph’s cape is white over a blue robe; Mary wears blue over white; the Shepherds are in white. Joseph’s cap is blue with a white band; his lantern has star-shaped panes.
Host of Herod Herod Captain
Herod wears a triple gold crown and a heavy robe of scarlet on which is a black design edged with white buttons. His staff is gold. The drawings for the Captain and the Host show the costume adapted to army use. The Host wears a scarlet tunic over the Khaki; the Captain a great scarlet cloak edged with a scimitar design in white. The Captain’s shield is silver and black; the other, silver and scarlet.
Belshasar Caspar Melchior
Belshasar: a cloak of blue, banded with white, over a long black robe; a high-crowned turban, blue and white. Melchior: a blue cloak with zigzag trimmings of black and white, a black gown, a black-and-white helmet with a red hood. Caspar wears a high-peaked hat of brilliant orange and a great orange cloak trimmed with bands of red and white and large white buttons. Underneath he wears a costume exactly like that of Claus: long high boots and a red jerkin trimmed with conventionalized holly leaves in green and edged with white fur. All three kings wear gold crowns.
Followers of Belshasar Followers of Caspar Followers of Melchior
The costumes of the Followers recall those of the three kings, but are more simply made: the Followers of Belshasar wear blue capes over black gowns, white hoods and tall, blue hats; the Followers of Caspar wear coats of orange banded with white over green gowns sashed with red, and orange hats; the Followers of Melchior have black gowns and blue capes with black-and-white designs like those on Melchior’s costume.
Sorrow Song Death Poverty
Sorrow, Poverty and Death are in black and white. Song wears white with bands of blue, and a wreath of white flowers in her hair. The Followers have costumes cut exactly like those of their leaders, but of gray instead of white. The Followers of Song carry long silver trumpets.
Ruth Claus The Children Chorus B
Ruth wears a white jacket over a red bodice and a gray skirt over a black-and-white striped under-skirt. Claus has high boots, a red jerkin edged with white fur and a red cap also edged with white fur. There should be no green trimming on his jerkin. His costume and Ruth’s should be extremely ragged and the two children should be roughly wrapped in rags. Chorus B wears a short red coat with white bands and a design of spear-heads on the shoulders. When this coat is removed at the end of the Masque, the white coat of Chorus A is seen. This bears a tree in green on either shoulder.
Nearly all the other costumes consist of a simple, cloak-like undergarment, over which are worn tunics and robes to characterize the Host of Herod, the Shepherds, the Followers of the Three Kings, or the Outcasts. There is nothing realistic in these clothes: they merely suggest the characters, broadly, as if they were made by children for a child’s play. They may be carried out by any dressmaker in inexpensive materials—muslin, cambric, cheesecloth, flannel—keeping always to a few brilliant, flat colors: strong red, strong blue, black and white, gray, and orange.
Make these costumes yourselves: use your own ingenuity in cutting and draping them: wear them with a sense of what each costume means. Then your ceremony will be beautiful.
New York,
September, 1917.
ACTION OF “THE EVERGREEN TREE”
The Masque is performed in Twelve Actions, taking place as follows:
First Action: Stage A (Chorus; Speech).
Second Action: Aisle I (Carol; Processional).
Third Action: Stage A (Carol; Speech).
Fourth Action: Approaching Space and Steps A; then Stage A (Chorus; Carols; Speech).
Fifth Action: Stage B (Chorus; Speech).
Sixth Action: Stage A (Chorus; Speech).
Seventh Action: Aisle II (Carol; Processional).
Eighth Action: Stage A (Carols; Speech).
Ninth Action: Stage B and Aisle I (Choral Song; Chorus; Processional; Pantomime).
Tenth Action: Stage A (Carol; Speech).
Eleventh Action: Aisle I and Aisle II (Choral Song; Processional).
Twelfth Action: Stage A (Chorus; Speech).