There are, however, two festivals which stand out from all the others by virtue of their origin and the nature of their activities. The older of these is the Norfolk Festival of the Litchfield County Choral Union, which has now (1914) completed its twenty-eighth season. This is not a drummed-up affair. It is a perfectly natural outgrowth of the numerous old singing societies with which Litchfield county was dotted in the psalm-singing days; it is in the best sense a product of the soil. The Litchfield County Choral Union grew out of the association of neighboring small ensembles for the occasional production of large choral works in a manner which none of them individually could accomplish in an effective manner. The purpose was a very useful one and it has had the effect of raising materially the standard of the choral work among the small societies composing the union. The Norfolk Festival itself, which is a comparatively recent institution, owes most of its present value to the efforts of Robbins Battell, the founder of the professorship of music at Yale, and more specially to the generosity and artistic idealism of Carl Stoeckel, who was, during Mr. Battell's lifetime, his secretary and aid. Mr. Stoeckel, as Mr. Battell's successor, has backed the festival with unstinted liberality. He has enabled it to bring before the public new works of famous as well as little known contemporary composers—particularly American—giving substantial cash prizes for the best new American compositions. He has placed at the disposal of the Litchfield County Choral Union a meeting place in ideal surroundings, modestly termed the 'Music Shed,' and he has brought to the support of the chorus for each festival an orchestra recruited from the best New York and Boston organizations, as well as an array of distinguished soloists. To secure the best possible performance of new works produced at the festival he has spared neither trouble nor expense, as may be instanced by the fact that he brought Jean Sibelius to America to conduct his own compositions. The value of these festivals to all the choral societies and church choirs composing the Litchfield County Union is obvious, but they have a still wider and greater value in introducing to the world the creations of native American composers and in holding up an example of fine artistic idealism which cannot be without its influence on the soul of the nation.

Of peculiar interest is the MacDowell Festival, held annually since 1910 at Peterborough, N. H., under the auspices of the MacDowell Memorial Association. It is a fact that Edward MacDowell did some of his best and most characteristic work—the Norse and Keltic sonatas, the New England Idyls and Fireside Tales, and many songs and choruses—in a log cabin on his farm at Peterborough, 'surrounded by enormous pines facing through a lovely vista Monadnock and the setting sun.' Realizing the value to a creative artist of such inspiring surroundings, he conceived the idea of bequeathing the place as a centre for artists seeking congenial conditions for work and rest. After his death the property was transferred by Mrs. MacDowell to the MacDowell Memorial Association. To quote the language of the deed of gift, 'it is expressly and especially desired that this home of Edward MacDowell shall be a centre of interest to artists working in varied fields, who, being there brought into contact, may learn to appreciate fully the fundamental unity of the separate arts. That in it the individual artist may gain a sympathetic attitude toward the works of artists in fields other than that in which such artist tries to embody the beautiful by recognizing that each part has a special function just so far as it has gained a special medium of expression.'

It is obvious that the beneficent influence of the MacDowell bequest is not confined to music, but it is natural under the circumstances that music should be the main beneficiary. Consequently the MacDowell Festival, which is a sort of annual get-together party, is predominantly a musical event, though the drama and the dance have their share in it. It is valuable primarily as the free expression of æsthetic aspiration unshackled by the deadening fetters of commercialism; and secondarily as a reasonably good opportunity for the American composer to obtain a public hearing. If its intent is finer than its accomplishment that is a fault unfortunately only too common to idealistic enterprises. Locally it accomplishes something of practical artistic value by supporting the MacDowell Choral Club (75 voices) and the MacDowell Choir of Nashua (100 voices), both under the leadership of Eusebius Godfrey Hood, and undoubtedly it exercises a stimulating effect upon those who participate in it.

One cannot omit here a notice of the pageant movement which has grown to quite striking proportions in America within the past few years and which its leading promoters designate as the most significant feature of our present artistic development. The term pageant is not particularly definitive. As applied to certain mediæval entertainments it was sufficiently explicit, but being a convenient and picturesque word it has been borrowed somewhat freely and indiscriminately of recent years. The beginning of the modern pageant occurred in England in 1905 and its father was Sir Gilbert Parker. It is a sort of tableau vivant, recreating for a few hours some especially picturesque period of the country's history. The Elizabethan period seems to be preferred. Music enters into it only incidentally. Boston was the first American city to adopt the idea. This was in 1908. Quebec followed soon afterward and Philadelphia staged an elaborate pageant in 1912. All these were modelled after the English type.

In the meantime some Americans, notably William Chauncy Langdon and Arthur Farwell, had been evolving an idea to which they applied the convenient name of pageant but which is fundamentally different from the English type and its imitators. Briefly, the new pageant is a community drama; it is a drama with the place for its hero and the development of the community for its plot. In this novel type of drama the individual is entirely submerged and the historical incidents are chosen rather for their symbolical value than for their intrinsic interest. The spirit informing the history of the community is the dominant theme. Out of this idea, it is claimed, there is being developed a new art-form representatively American and interpretative of the American spirit. The first pageant embodying the community idea was written by William Chauncy Langdon for Thetford, Vt., in 1911. Some of the music was composed by James T. Sleeper, but most of it was adapted. The pageant of St. Johnsbury, Vt., also written by Mr. Langdon, followed in 1912. Brookes C. Peters, a local man, composed most of the music for it. Then came the pageant of Meriden, N. H., in 1913, in which Mr. Langdon and Arthur Farwell collaborated and which was the first pageant composed as a musical art form complete. Mr. Farwell brought to this work a large enthusiasm for the idea and an ardent faith in its possibilities, and he has since taken a very conspicuous part in its development. The pageant of Darien, Conn., in 1913, composed by him to the book of Mr. Langdon, shows considerable progress in the evolution of the pageant as a distinct art-form. Another step in advance was taken by the pageant of Cape Cod in 1914, written by Mr. Langdon with music by Daniel Gregory Mason. The elaborate pageant and masque of St. Louis in 1914 was of a somewhat different order and resembled more closely the English type. The music of the masque was composed by Frederick S. Converse, and, being conceived as an independent art unit rather than as incidental music, may be regarded as a new departure in the 'masque' rather than a development of the pageant-form.

Regarding the musical side of this and other pageants Mr. Langdon says in a letter to the writer: 'So far as I know in no English pageant has there been any attempt to recognize the pageant as a new musical art-form in itself and to develop the music as an art-unit, comparable to the sonata, symphony, or opera. The music has all been incidental music, though often filling quite thoroughly all openings for anything of the kind. Herewith much original composing has been done, and some of it at least very fine composing. The formative idea, or precedent I almost call it, is to be found in the chorus of the Greek drama set to music. So, too, the music written for the Philadelphia pageant of 1912 is of the same type, as that pageant itself was modelled after the English type quite closely rather than following the American departures. But thus far, so far as I know, my pageants are the only ones that regard the pageant as a musical as well as dramatic art-form and seek to work out its development as such.' Certainly the new pageant is one of the most interesting developments in American art, and it is especially interesting in view of the fact that it is a distinctly American idea particularly well calculated, one would think, to be a vehicle for the expression of the American spirit. So far, of course, it is largely an experiment and its history lies rather in the future than in the past. Its susceptibility to national application favors its possibilities considerably.

The lack of such susceptibility lessens the importance of many other local and very characteristic art developments. The most interesting of these are the Grove Plays, or Midsummer High Jinks of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco, which are briefly an expression in drama and music of the spirit of joy. Climate, locale and a body of artists with the sort of traditions indicated by their club name, combine to give these affairs their characteristic flavor, and it is doubtful if they could be imitated successfully under different conditions. But it would seem that similar attempts at local expression, whatever form they may take, are likely to become common in America in the future, and serve as valuable and much-needed stimulants to the creation of a worthy native art.

W. D. D.

FOOTNOTES:

[54] As we have already noticed, the 'Messiah' was performed at Trinity Church, New York, in 1771 and 1772, but there is a reasonable doubt whether on either of these occasions the work was given in its entirety.