We have now enumerated all the subdivisions of folk-song in its broader sense: the native folk-song proper, exemplified by the negro plantation song; the song in the folk manner, exemplified by the negro minstrel tunes, the work of Stephen Foster and the patriotic songs, adapted or original; the adapted folk-song of the French-Canadian, Spanish-American, the Kentucky mountaineer, etc.; and, finally, the simon-pure folk-song of foreign birth, perpetuated in America by immigrants. All of these are vital forces in American composition and as such must receive more detailed attention.
II
The discussion of the negroes' claim to the title 'American' would be perhaps out of place at this late date, and particularly in this place, were it not that a considerable class of American citizens has denied to them not only social equality but equal consideration and opportunity as a native citizen of the country. The preponderance of European blood in the nation hardly justifies this any more than it would justify the exclusion of the large number of Americans that are of anciently oriental origin. In contrast with this the name 'American' is never denied to the Indian, but priority of settlement can hardly be argued in his favor, for by such reasoning the negro has superior claims over some of the 'elect' of the white elements among Americans. Negroes were sold into slavery in Virginia before the landing of the Pilgrims in 1790. The first census of the United States showed 759,208 negroes, and to-day they constitute nearly 13 per cent. of the entire population. Their intellectual powers have been amply proved by the achievements of individual members of the race, in science, in education, and in the arts. It is hardly necessary to name such men as Booker T. Washington, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and Dr. Burghardt DuBois in support of this. Mr. Krehbiel, however, does well in quoting the last-named of these in proving the present contention:
'Your country? How came it yours? Before the Pilgrims landed we were here. Here we have brought three gifts and mingled them with yours—a gift of story and song, soft stirring melody in an ill-harmonized and unmelodious land; the gift of sweat and brawn to beat back the wilderness, conquer the soil and lay the foundations of this vast economic empire two hundred years earlier than your weak hands could have done it; the third a gift of the Spirit. Around us the history of the land has centred for thrice a hundred years; out of the nation's heart we have called all that was best, to throttle and subdue what was worst; fire and blood, prayer and sacrifice have billowed over this people, and they have found peace only in the altars of the God of Right....'
The negroes' songs are sung in the language of the country—or a dialect of it; and, while they do not voice the sentiments of the entire population—no song in a country so heterogeneous could do that—they are American songs by the same right that the peasant songs of Russia are Russian or the song of any other class of Americans would be American.
In order to prove the originality of the negro folk-song it has been necessary to combat the opinion of so learned a writer as Dr. Wallaschek,[63] who has contended that these songs are 'unmistakably "arranged"—not to say ignorantly borrowed—from the national songs of all nations, from military signals, well-known marches, German students' songs, etc., unless it is pure accident which has caused me to light upon traces of so many of them.' This radical statement, while it has the force of scientific deduction, is erroneous in the premises upon which these deductions are based. Dr. Wallaschek has relied too freely upon the testimony of travellers whose musical knowledge is doubtful and he has evidently confused genuine slave songs with imitations of them, such as the so-called minstrel tunes written by whites. Besides, as Mr. Krehbiel very plausibly remarks, 'similarities exist between the folk-songs of all peoples. Their overlapping is a necessary consequence of the proximity and intermingling of peoples, like modifications of language; and there are some characteristics which all songs except those of the rudest and most primitive kind must have in common. The prevalence of the diatonic scales and march-rhythms, for instance, make parallels invariable. If the use of such scales and rhythms in the folk-songs of the American negroes is an evidence of plagiarism or imitation, it is to be feared that the peoples whose music they put under tribute have been equally culpable with them. Mr. William Francis Allen—with Charles Pickard Ware and Lucy McKim Garrison the compiler of the most famous collection of negro songs[64]—while admitting that negro music is partly imitative of the music of the whites, says that 'in the main it appears to be original in the best sense of the word, and the more we examine the subject, the more genuine it appears to be.' Only in a very few songs does Mr. Allen trace strains of less familiar music which the slaves heard their masters sing or play. In spite of this, the songs themselves prove that they are the spontaneous utterances of an entire people. As in the case of all folk-songs, their first germs were uttered by individual spokesmen, but these germs were such genuine reflections of sentiments common to all and were subjected to such modifications in their travels from lip to lip as to assume the character of a composite expression of the race. They are indeed 'original and native products. They contain idioms transplanted hither from Africa, but as songs they are the product of American institutions, of the social, political, and geographical environment within which their creators were placed in America; of the joys, sorrows, and experiences which fell to their lot in America.'
Having established the 'Americanism' and the originality of the negro folk-song, and having stated the presence of an African as well as European element, we may now attempt to point definitely to instances of both. Generally speaking, the African characteristics consist of rhythmic and melodic aberration, while the European ingredients find expression in the harmonic structure and the style of the melodies as far as they are influenced by that structure. But this statement is subject to qualifications. While the African, like every other exotic race, is generally innocent of harmonic science, travellers have brought evidences of a genuine natural feeling for harmony among the African tribes. Thus a German officer recounted to John W. D. Moodie[65] how his playing of an aria from Gluck's Orfeo on the violin was immediately imitated with accompaniments by the native Hottentots. Peter Kolbe, writing in 1719, testified to the Hottentots' playing of their gom-goms in harmony, and Mr. Krehbiel records the singing of a Dahoman minstrel at the World's Columbian Exposition (1893) to the accompaniment of a Chinese harp as follows: 'With his right hand he played over and over again a descending passage of dotted crotchets and quavers in thirds; with his left hand he syncopated ingeniously on the highest tuned string.' According to the same writer, another investigator, Dr. Wangemann, transcribed a hymn by a Kaffir in which the solos were sung in unison but the refrain in full harmony. These instances should give some clue to the extraordinary ability of negroes to 'harmonize,' that is, improvise harmonies to a given melody.
Of course, the strongest musical accomplishment of the African is his extraordinary command of rhythm. As is the case with most primitive music, the rhythm of the African music is determined by the native dances. The drum, which marks the rhythm, is the most important instrument of the African, and his ability upon it is nothing short of marvellous. He has developed a 'drum language' which he uses in signalling in war time and for communication at long distance. 'The most refined effects of the modern tympanist seem to be put in the shade by the devices used by African drummers in varying the sound of their instruments so as to make them convey meanings, not by conventional formulas but by actual imitation of words.'[66] Their ability to use cross rhythms and intricate effects of syncopation is evidently inherited by the American negroes, whose prowess in that direction may be verified in a thousand dance halls. Syncopation and the peculiar form of it which Mr. Krehbiel refers to as the 'Scotch snap' is indeed the outstanding characteristic of all negro music. The short note on a strong beat immediately followed by a longer one on a weak beat, and the consequent shifted rhythm popularly known as 'ragtime' is scarcely ever absent in negro folk-music. That it is a heritage from Africa seems to be conclusively proved by the recording of such melodies as these:
Drum Call from West Africa.