This is the direction followed by our lighter musical plays of most recent times. It is to be regretted that the grace and refinement that marks many of the English musical comedies is so entirely lacking in the American imitations of the same class. A note of vulgarity insinuates itself unfailingly into the bulk of our contemporaneous popular music. Flagrant examples of the ultimate type of musical play above described are those of George M. Cohan, in whose inspiration some have seen the first manifestation of the American 'genius.' The titles of some of Mr. Cohan's plays, such as 'Yankee Doodle Boy,' 'Little Johnny Jones,' and 'George Washington, Jr.,' reveal the jingoistic qualities of his inspirations. The musical numbers of these works are expressed in terms more or less Mr. Cohan's own. He has utilized 'ragtime' largely and in the rhythmical excitement of his songs lies their strongest appeal. Other authors whose works follow generally either the Americanized form of the English musical comedy or the more distinctly native form of Mr. Cohan's 'musical shows' are: Jean Schwartz, Silvio Hein, Gus Edwards, Manuel Klein, Raymond Hubbel, and Robert H. Bowers.
It is to be hoped that there will be a return to the more legitimate forms of lighter operas and that a revival of taste for the more refined forms of stage work may soon offer again to the American composer opportunities to demonstrate the very suitable field which this branch of the art offers to his talent. An optimistic observer of present conditions may see in the unqualified vulgarity of our popular music to-day only the token of a vitality which, when softened by the refining touch of the next decade, shall result in an expression of individual charm.
B. L.
LITERATURE FOR VOLUME IV
In English
William F. Allen: Slave Songs of the United States (1867).
W. G. Armstrong: A Record of Opera in Philadelphia (Phila., 1884).
Rudolph Aronson: Theatrical and Musical Memories (New York, 1913; Boston, 1913).
W. J. Baltzell: Music in American Cities (The Musician, vol. 18, No. 6, pp. 369-373; No. 9, pp. 587-590).
Henry Clay Barnabee: Reminiscences of Henry Clay Barnabee; ed. by Geo. L. Varney (Boston, 1913).