Books › Musical Courier 1928-06-21: Vol 96 Iss 25, 1928 › scan 36
Scan 36
Musical Courier 1928-06-21: Vol 96 Iss 25, 1928
25 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 37. See the scan on archive.org.
1June 21, 1928
2MUSICAL COURIER
3TELLS HOW SHE BECAME A FOLK SONG SINGER
4Patricia MacDonald Calls Her Programs "Folk Songs of the Danube and the Vistula" and Explains Why.
5PATRICIA MAC DONALD
6In two of her folk song costumes
7A MUSICAL COURIER interviewer called the other day on Patricia MacDonald. After having been graciously received, relieved of coat and hat, and ushered into a handsomely furnished reception room, Miss MacDonald began by asking the first question: "Well, do you know what you are here for?"
8The interviewer said that he thought he was there to get an interview, whereupon Miss MacDonald wanted to know whether the visitor knew what it was all about. To which the interviewer replied that he knew that Miss MacDonald sang folk songs and had a lot of fancy costumes to show, but that this was as far as his knowledge went.
9Miss MacDonald said that she called her programs Folk Songs of the Danube and the Vistula. The interviewer told her that he knew where the Danube was and that he thought he had once upon a time heard of the Vistula, but really had very little idea as to where it was or why it should be included in this folk song territory.
10Miss MacDonald explained that the Vistula was an enormous river running up through Poland into the Baltic Sea, and that she mentioned it to indicate in a general way the fact that Poland was included in her folk song list. The other countries are all on the Danube or close to the Danube. The countries listed are Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Roumania, Jugoslavia and Bulgaria, and they constitute that great block of land that lies to the east of Italy, to the north of Greece and Turkey, to the west of Russia, and again to the east of Germany and Austria. It is a country which runs to the Adriatic Sea on the south, to the Baltic Sea on the north, and to the Black Sea on the east. It is what most people have been accustomed to call The Balkans, though that may or may not be the correct name for it.
11The interviewer's wonderment was what in the world an evidently and obviously thoroughly American girl should be doing down in that wild country of revolutions, and he frankly asked her the question. Miss MacDonald replied that she was in that country just after the war, spent two years there in fact, and while there became interested in the people, their songs and their costumes.
12She found herself in a position to investigate, and investigate she did, until finally, having gathered together an immense amount of material, she decided to bring the folk songs and the costumes back to America and to give people here an opportunity to see what she had seen and to enjoy what she had enjoyed. She travelled in all sorts of places, mostly remaining near the large towns, but making excursions out into the real country; and she was cautious enough (her name sounds Scotch!) not to depend upon her own knowledge or upon what chance acquaintances might tell her, but always made sure to get the advice of experts in the matter of folk lore before selecting either songs for interpretation or costumes.
13She had the generous aid of government officials, museum officials, persons engaged in the diplomatic service, and others who were in a position to be of real benefit to her, and she was able to acquire by these means an insight into genuine musical performances in the countries she visited and to obtain genuine old costumes—not imitations, but the real thing. Her costumes, some of which she showed to the interviewer, are magnificent. Even to one who, like the interviewer, has seen such costumes while wandering through many European countries, the lavishness of those which Miss MacDonald has, and the beauty of design and workmanship, proved to be a revelation.
14As to the music that Miss MacDonald sings, most of it has been arranged by natives entirely familiar with the type of music it includes, and in the arrangements are carried out the feelings of the people and the atmosphere of the songs themselves. Miss McDonald says that of course a great deal of the singing in these countries is done without accompaniment, but that naturally unaccompanied singing does not interest Americans and would be meaningless and dull, as accustomed are we to the piano accompaniment.
15Then, again, in the matter of language, Miss MacDonald has trained herself carefully to sing each of the various languages used in these countries, and sings them perhaps not entirely without accent, but still so well that native audiences to which she has sung have understood and enjoyed her interpretations of their music.
16It is interesting to America also that each of these countries where Miss MacDonald has collected songs and costumes is proud of the fact that their national art is being thus interpreted and spread abroad, and have given themselves the trouble to thank Miss MacDonald for what she has done for them.
17Miss MacDonald has material for a number of programs, and being an accomplished actress as well as an accomplished singer, she gives the programs a genuine folk interest. She acts and dresses, for instance, the Hungarian village type, or the Roumanian Goose Girl, or the Polish peasant, a maid from Croatia, a Mountain Girl from Transylvania, or someone from Bulgaria or Macedonia, or somewhere else in the countries she has selected for interpretations. Her most amusing costume, and one of that finds the most response from her audience, is that of a Hungarian Horse Herd. She is shown in this costume in one of the accompanying photographs, and she not only looks the part, but plays the part to perfection.
18Her difficulty, Miss MacDonald says, is not that she has too little material, but that she has far too much material. She finds it difficult to know where to begin and where to leave off. Those people are so utterly different from anyone we have seen in this country, so extremely picturesque, their emotions so much more freely expressed than we would dream of here, and their whole manner of acting and mode of life so utterly different from ours, that a dozen evenings might be filled with interpretations of them and their costumes and their songs and yet even the exterior of the subject not be touched.
19One feels that the reason for Miss MacDonald's success is obviously her enthusiasm for her subject and her determination to make her study complete and her interpretation of it completely authentic. She has admirably succeeded.
20Final Program at Master Institute
21The final program of the season was given recently at the Master Institute of United Arts, New York, by the following students: James Mather, Carrie Getter, Suzanne Fox, Tom Robinson, Martin Webster, Kalman Getter, Henry Bretzfield, Vera Rodkinson, Fifi Lazaris, Cecile Webster, Janet Williams, Sylvia Karlit, Mark Robinson, Blair Hawes, Ira Spector, Dorothy Blumberg, Marjorie Sable, Leonard Sable, Selma Cashman, Anna Shafer, Edward Trestman, Catherine Bernard, Clara Bernard and Catherine Scherman, with Ethel Baumann, Janet Binder and Mildred Pearson as accompanists. A large audience which taxed the capacity of the hall received each diminutive player with applause, and following the concert expressed surprise at the high standard maintained by the students. Those taking part in the program study with Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Lichtmann, Ethel Prince Thompson and Esther J. Lichtmann of the piano department; Alba Rose Victor and Gustave Walther of the violin department, and Percy Such of the cello faculty.
22Following the recital, the audience had the opportunity to see the work of the Master Institute of United Arts in other fields, at the Exhibition of Painting and Modeling by the junior students, beginning at five years, working under Ellen Kettunen and Frances Williams.
23Naumburgs Plan Concert for July 4
24The yearly Independence Day concert, given through the courtesy of Walter W. and George W. Naumburg, will be held on the Mall in Central Park on the afternoon of July 4 under the direction of Maximilian Pilzer. The program will include selections by Elgar, Weber, Mendelssohn, Tchaikowsky, Massenet, Victor Herbert, Sibelius and Wagner.
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