The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume], December 03, 1922, FINAL EDITION, COMIC AND MAGAZINE SECTION, Image 49

About The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927

Image provided by: Oklahoma Historical Society

                
iJI IB1 ST 11 lJl I if"! 1111 I 1 till
r
So Prof. Dykerna Declares as
He Deplores the Rhythmic
Attack on Morals and Health,
and Likens the Trap-
Drummer to a Voo
doo Worshipper.
Even aProfound Egotist
Miglt Hesitate to Blow
His Own if He Owned
Tins Prize Horn.
Takes Three Men
Toot It, in Fact.
A Night Scene at Starlight Swimming Pool, New York City, Where the "Wild
Waves" Arc Wild Jazz Waves and the Dancers Pretty Hard to Tame. .
THE trap-drummer in a jazz orchestra, bang
ing cymbals with one hand, flourishing a
rattle with the other, and tooting a foghorn
with his lips, is just as savage as an Afriqgn
voodoo worshipper. And the people who delight
in these explosions of sound are no better. The jazz
drummer is shattering the nerves of his auditors
more than he is their morals, and his auditors
are tamely submitting to the disintegration.
Such, nt least, is the opinion of the National
Rccreation Congress, which, meeting recently in
Atlantic City, adopted resolutions condemning
jazz as it is played today ,and urging the Ameri
can people to stop jazz "stunts" more for physi
cal and spiritual than for moral "reasons.
"As a nation we are consuming an unpalata
ble and decidedly unbalanced musical ration,"
Prof. Peter W. Dykcma of the University of
Wisconsin, told the Recreation Congress. "Wo
are musically undernourished. 'America needs
good music as badlv as Austria needs good food."
Prof. Dyke ma's speech startled the Congress,
for he is considered one of America's foremost
authorities on music. In suggesting a crusade
against cowbefl3, horns, rattles and pistol shots,
Prof. Dykcma did not condemn jazz in toto.
"Jazz music has a comparatively new rhyth
mic arrangement of tones," he said. "It has a
piquancy and verve and stimulating quality
which form a real contribution to music- The
objections to it are in tjio way it is used. It
is so atrociously presented with drums, gongs,
cowbells, rattles, raucous whistles and other
nerve-wracking devices that the musical element
is almost obliterated. . . . We need not listen.
We need not think. AH we do is press the but
ton and the noise will do the rest."
And now to provide more power for ncrvc
shattcring, manufacturers are being called on for
bigger and bigger musical instruments violins
twice the height of a girl and horns that take
three men to handle.
Prof. Dyicema's attack on jazz "stunts" as
nervc-wrackers comes almost simultaneously with
another volley at jazz from a distinguished New
York jurist, who sees in it an insidious iniluenco
on American morals.
"Jazz has worked its way into the life of our
city and given its inhabitants a misconception of
the purpose of life and the sanctity of marriage
vows," declared Judge Alexander Brpugh, of the
Probation court of New York, in a recent inter
view. "It has put inn the populace a nervous
desire always to be doing something in a hurry.
That3 why hundreds of couples marry in haste
and repent the rest of their lives."
Where the Kecreation Congress seeks to curb
jazz because of its jangle on the nerves, where
Judge Brough depicts jazz as partly responsible
for the.- divorce evil, other authorities are
diseoverinc that good music can be used
Here Is the Foo Foo Band of the Ocean Greyhound Celtic Trying to Live Up to Prof,
Dykema's Comparison to African Voodoo Worshippers.
by man to cure his
physical ills, to
make his labors
more efficient, to
enhance his skill in
art, and to rear a
healthier, bronder
gunt;ed, nobler gen
eration of his chil
dren, m-
Music is being
used in insane
asylums to restore
reason to maniacs.
Music is being used
jn great manufac
turing plants to in
crease production
by employes. Con
certs are being
given more fre
quently in peniten
tiaries with a view
io moulding good
citizens out of
yeggmen. Public
schools arc map
ping out musical
curricula, not bo
much to teach
pupils to sing, but
to teach them to
think.
Music, in short,
is aboutf to be har
nessed to man's
many purposes just
as he harnessed
electricity and firo
and waiter.
Of course, the discovery of the influence of
m'usic in other than esthetic realms is not a new
oneL Since the days of Alexander the Greal gen
erals havcTcnown-that singing armies fought bet
ter than silent armies. Every evangelist from
Wesley to Billy Sunday has depended on music
to awaken the religious emotions of his audience.
3iusic has driven some men to murder and some
men to martyrdom.
But not until recent years and, in fact, till
recent months have medical men, business oiri
ciency experts, social workers, executives of every
class begun to employ music systematically as a
force as powerful, in its way, as steam pr steel.
The movies were among the first to discover
its possibilities. When the violins played Mas
senet's "Elegic," the leading lady could sob much
better than when the strings were stilled. When
the band struck up a merry march, the comedians
could make funnier faces than if tho band was
M tb, mW MW WllMUM HI MMiM IHI I IIMM ill I I II III II IW
The Biggest Violin in the World 1 1 Feet 7 Inches Tnll, 4 Feet 7
Inches Wide, 13 Inches Deep, 150 Pounds Weight; Strings the Thick
ness of a Man's Finger and 7 Fset 10 Inches Long; Bridge 12 Inches
High, and a Bow 39 Inches. Habitat New York City.
pntron can be "played" into
getting a shampoo, a mas
sage and a manicuro where
he would depart nf tor a shavo
only under less soothing con
ditions.
' Tho United States I'cni
tentiary In Atlanta not only has regu
lar concerts for its inmates, but en
conragfs them to bo musicians them
selves. There is a band and a glee club.
Thpro is also a daily "music hour," '
when for CO minutes every prisoner in
tho "pen" can play on an instrument of
his own choosing. The effect to tho
visitor in bedlam, nut oiriciais say the
men are made more contented and, in some in
stances, have left the prison, after steady musi
cal diet, with good resolutions they attributo direct
ly to the musical Influence.
Moissaye Hogusiawm, n
young profo-'sof n piano. In
the Chicago Musical College,
demonstrated to tho Ameri
can medical world what con
crete things music can do for
the feeble-minded. Noting in
hi.-i work the jiround influence
of music on normal minds, he
concluded that it would have
a like influence on diseased
tlculnr derangement. There la no telling, how
ever, to whaHype of music a mind will respond
and it'la only by experiment and close observation
of tho patient luring tho playing that tho par
ticular picco which will open tho door of his
memory is hit upon.
"One of my eases," ho said, "was an Ttnllan
woman putfent who had become insane and do- ,
aerted her baby at birth. Tho hospital, author!-'
ties could do nothing with her, nnd she spent her
days crouching in a corner of tho ward. I played
to her everything 1 could think of without pro
ducing any noticeable result. Suddenly It oc
curred to me to try tho 'Miserere' from 'II TrAva
tore.' The effect on the woman iyas instantane
ous; sho burst into tears and a short wtillo after
ward began to ask coherent questions about hor
baby and her husband' On being questioned a3
to the melody that moved her bo much, she said
she could remember her father sinking it when
sho was a child."
Even such ardent advocates of tho beneficial
use of music as Prof. Boguslawski do not claim
everything for It. They strike a medium position
such as that taken by tho National Itecreation
Congress in Its discussion of jazz. Ono of the
speakers before tho Congress. Prof. A. T Davi-
Even the Youngsters Go in for Jazz. This Kid Jazz Band Entertained the Grown-opa
at New York City Concert.
Cincinnati's Prize Bassoon, Six Feet High,
Is Played by a "Little Girl."
r
absent. Now no Hollywood "lot" is without its
orchestra,
"Business men took a tip from the pictures.
One of the biggest factoriofl in New Jersey is
r-juipped with phonographs on every floor. -Its
manager has discovered his girls work faster and
more accurate! if a'popular-ong drowns cut the
whirr of tliS belts. One of tho biggest barber
shops in New York City furnishes music with its
shaves and haircuts. Tho proprietor say a
V mm tQuptt Feoiar Sttflce. IStS.
minds. With the permission of the authorities,
he conducted a scries of experiments covering
more than u year at tho Chicago State Hospital
at Dunning, III.
There, after studying the data concerning
cases which camo under his observation, he
evolvrd a system from which ho believes perma
nent cures may bo attained; a belief which ho
says is concurred in by the medical authorities.
This is the basin of his system:
Music can do in the ease of tho insane person
what medical science hitherto has failed to do
take the patient's mind oh" tho one thing which
obsesses him and carry him back to the memory
of the days which preceded the cause of his par
son, of Barnard College, expressed It In these
words:
"Although I bolieve with all my heart In the
power of great music to accomplish many things,
1 do not believe that Bach is a cure for shoplift
ing or that the strains of a Beethoven adagio
will stay the pyromaniac's hand. Music is an art,
not a policeman, and what music does to us de
pends upon what impulses are in us for music
to set to work. Wo may admit, however, that
music which is beautiful and great because of its
qualities has a better chance of generating good
emotions and stimulating right thinking than
music which is merely pretty or primarily phjril.
cal in its appeal."