Many American composers have, since these lines were written, acted upon the suggestion contained in them. We need but mention George W. Chadwick, Henry Schoenefeld, E. R. Kroeger, Henry F. Gilbert, Arthur Farwell, and W. H. Humiston among those who have drawn upon this fertile treasure of thematic material. It is but the beginning, however. American music is becoming more and more distinctive. Whether intentionally or spontaneously, our musical literature is bound to absorb some of the color of so potent an element of national lore.
IV
A great deal cannot be said at this time about the American folk-song from other than negro sources. Doubtless there is a wealth of song to be found in the Spanish-American sections along our borders, in the recesses of the Blue Ridge mountains, whose communities still live by the guide of primitive instincts and in defiance of law and order; on the great prairies of the west, where the cowboy has developed a rude type of chivalry peculiar to himself and with it an idiom reflecting the dare-devil and man-defying existence which he leads. But little has been done to collect this scattered store, to commit it to paper, and to sift the worthy from the dross.
As regards the cowboy songs, the Southwest Society of the Archæological Institute of America, under the direction of Charles F. Lummis, has recently done some pioneer work. One of the songs thus gathered, 'The Lone Prairie,' was harmonized by Mr. Arthur Farwell and published in the Wa-wan Press series in 1905. In the arranger's opinion it is probably the first cowboy song to be printed. As such it acquires a special interest. It is in the minor mode, has the rhythmic snap peculiar to negro music, though it is in triple rhythm, and acquires a certain exotic flavor by the constant use of the minor seventh instead of the leading tone. Its outstanding ethnic character, if it has any, is, however, Irish. It is not improbable that the cowboy song should have acquired a certain tone from the music of the Indian, though a generous admixture of the Celtic idiom is most certainly to be expected from the racial character of the caste.
In the same number of the Wa-wan Press there are two examples of Spanish-Californian folk-songs that are extremely interesting. Their Spanish character is unmistakable, though perhaps the tone is a little more plaintive than we are wont to expect from their original Southern habitat. 'The Hours of Grief' and 'The Black Face' are both set in the minor, and the 2/4 (quasi 6/8) measure, with the characteristic dotted rhythm, only accentuates the sombreness of the sentiment. Syncopation is used sparingly, at the end of a phrase only. The subject of the latter song—the lament of a dusky youth over his unhappy love for a white beauty, would bespeak negro origin, too, and the general character of the piece is certainly reminiscent of the Creole dance songs with their Habañera rhythm.
The Spanish-American songs of further south, of Central America and Mexico, hardly come within our scope, though American composers would be quite justified in drawing upon them for material. A collection recently made by Miss Eleanor Hague, of the American Folklore Society, and published with accompaniments by Edward Kilenyi, does not reveal much beyond the standard of salon music, though in their own home the characteristic environment of Spanish America and the peculiar manner of their performance may add greatly to their effect. To quote Miss Hague:
'To sit in the plaza of some quaint Mexican town on a starry perfumed evening is to realize the significance of highly colored and impassioned utterance. One's blood is fired by the rhythmic quality of the music which floats out from the gaily lighted central pavilion, and the groups of people are a delight to one's eyes: Indians in white cotton clothes, gaudy serapes and big hats; groups of young girls with scarfs over their heads walking about; other groups of young men in the picturesque charro costume, as well as occasional older people of dignified mien. On a bench an exquisitely pretty girl sits beside her mother, with her eyes fixed on space, but quite conscious of the youth in his best embroidered jacket and sombrero, at the further end of the bench, who gazes shyly at her and then looks away with rapture in his eyes. If he has not already begun to "play the bear" under her window he undoubtedly will soon reach that point in his courtship.... In Mexico the guitar is used everywhere for accompanying and also for solos. As a rule in playing accompaniments the natives content themselves with simple harmonies in chord form or as arpeggios; but they have a deep affection for successions of thirds and never seem to tire of their honied sweetness.'
The French-Canadian, across the other border of the United States, also has developed a folk-song peculiar to himself in the course of his romantic existence. It is so closely allied to French folk-song that we have preferred to treat it in that connection. There remains only to be mentioned the folk-song of the Kentucky mountaineer which has had some attention at the hands of Mrs. Jeannette Robinson Murphy, already quoted above. The mountaineer, like the cowboy, is made up of various national strains, and his song in consequence is one of mixed or indefinite character. The rhythmic element again predominates and, indeed, practically all his songs have their principal use in connection with the dance. Fast rhythmic tunes in duple time and in very simple form are sung as accompaniment to all the so-called 'set dances,' which form the chief entertainment at evening gatherings in log cabins. Upon these occasions the fiddler assumes the office of leader for both song and dance—he calls out the tunes, directs the 'figures' and sings the first verse of the song, while his assistant, by a peculiar tapping of the strings of the instrument, marks the rhythm. The songs, or ballads, are often of humorous or bantering flirtatious character, and in them is perpetuated many a peculiarity of mountaineer life.
At this point we end our necessarily incomplete review of American folk-song, a subject which future research will do much to place more nearly within our reach. We shall now discuss briefly the American song in the folk manner, which may be considered to have grown out of the folk-song proper.