Volume I Part 13 (1/2)
TO H E KREHBIEL
NEW ORLEANS, 1878
MY DEAR KREHBIEL,--I received yours, with the kind wishes of Mrs
Krehbiel, which afforded me more pleasure than I can tell you,--also the _Golden Hours_ with your instructive article on the history of the piano It occurs to htful little voluht certainly to find a first-class publisher I hope you will entertain the suggestion, if it has not already occurred to you I do not know very much about lish tongue has been published of a character so ade of the romantic history of music instruments as your essays would constitute, if shaped into a voluinal and so I have not yet returned yourthat Chinese play He takes a great interest in what you write
I send you, not without some qual a few personal re you known here in ard to the same Firstly, the _Item_ is only a poor little sheet, in which I am not able to obtain space sufficient to do you or your art labour justice; secondly, I beg of you to reantly from a strictly newspaper standpoint, it will not be taken oes no farther north than St Louis
The Creole rhyible chiefly because they ritten phonetically after a fashi+on which I hold to be an abo Indian missionary of the South,--the last of the Blackrobe Fathers, and is known to the Choctaws by the name of Charitah-Ima You may find him mentioned in the American Encyclopaedia published by the fir very remarkable about his poetry, except its eccentricity The ”Chant d'un jeune Creole” was si of a sketch of his own life in it It was published in _Le Propagateur_, a French Catholic paper, for the purpose of attracting ht the paper ht fall under ht to have been spelled,--or ”Mocking Singer,” otherwise the -bird, has some pretty bits of onohty forests of cedar and pine, and its groves of giant cypress, is the natural ho were adapted to the airs of sos, and thepart of the you a detailed account of the Creoles of Louisiana, and their blending with Creole eo; but it is a subject of great latitude, and I can only outline it for you Their characteristics offer an interesting topic, and the bastard offspring of the enated French and African, or Spanish and African, dialects called Creole offer pretty peculiarities worth a volu sketch of the subject I ro h often remodelled by French composers There could neither have been Creole patois nor Creole melodies but for the French and Spanish blooded slaves of Louisiana and the Antilles The ro chant are lightened by the French influence, or subdued and deepened by the Spanish
Yes, I _did_ send you that song as so queer I had only hoped that thenaivete of the words; but I have been disappointed But youis pretty and has a queer simplicity of sentiment Save it for the words (Alas!
_Melusine_--according to information I have just received fro _Melusine_! I sincerely ical lament) L'Orient is in Brittany, and the chant is that of a Breton fisher village That it should be ; but that it should be melancholy without weirdness or sweetness is lae collection of Breton songs, with music; and I think I shall avail ends; you ant, I am sure, to peep at the music Your criticis wail does not surprise h it disappointed in Your last letter strengthened a strange fancy that has come to no siolian and certain types of the Irish face that one is inclined to suspect a far-distant origin of the Celts in the East The Erse and the Gaelic tongues, you know, are very similar in construction, also the modern Welsh I have heard them all, and met Irish people able to comprehend both Welsh and Gaelic from the resemblance to the Erse I suppose you have lots of Welsh music, the music of the Bards, soin Tell me if you have ever come across any Scandinavian s, and the Runic chants, so awfully potent to char of the Sweynof Ragnar Lodbrok, or the songs of the warlocks and Norse priests; the s, etc I suppose you reend:--
”Then the Scald took his harp and sang, And loud through theword; And the harp-strings a clangor made, As if they were struck with the blade Of a sword”
I aot so in the world can corotesqueness to Finnish tradition and characteristic superstition I see an advertisement of ”Le Chant de Roland,” price 100, splendidly illustrated Wonder if the original iant Taillefer sang that hty chant as he hewed down the Saxons at the battle of Hastings
With grateful regards to Mrs Krehbiel, I remain
Yours a jamais, L H
TO H E KREHBIEL
MY DEAR KREHBIEL,--That I should have been able even by a suggestion to have been of any use to you is a great pleasure Your inforard to Pere Rouquette interested me The father--the last of the Blackrobe Fathers--is at present with his beloved Indians at Ravine-les-Cannes; but I will see hiood old soul If the coluood periodical were open to e life--inspired by the s of Chateaubriand in the coely beautiful religion of his own--not only the poetic religion of _Atala_ and _Les Natchez_, but that religion of the wilderness which flies to solitude, and hath no other temple than the vault of Heaven itself, painted with the frescoes of the clouds, and illu altar, the stars of the firan-talk You are right, I am convinced, in your quotation of St Jerome To-day I send you the book--an old copy I had considerable difficulty in coaxing from the owner It will be of use to you chiefly by reason of the curious list of writers on mediaeval and antique music quoted at the end of the volume
If you do not make a successful voluht to happen to you,--_especially as Cincinnati has now aabout music_ You are the professor of e
Your work is a work of instruction for the young As the professor of that college, you should be able to estion I know you are not a wire-puller--couldn't be if you tried; but I want to see those talks put to good use, and made profitable to the writer, and you have friends who should be able to do what I think
Your friend is right, no doubt, about the
”Tig, tig, o Redjouhed and shook her head,--”Mais c'est Voudoo, ca; je n'en sais rien!” ”Well,” said I, ”don't you know anything about Voudoo songs?” ”Yes,” she answered, ”_I know Voudoo songs; but I can't tell you what they mean_” And she broke out into the wildest, weirdest ditty I ever heard I tried to write down the words; but as I did not knohat theythe words according to the French pronunciation:--
”Yo so dan Godo Heru a la papa, No TinGodise Tiga la papa Ha Tinguoaiee Ha Tinguoaiee Ha Tinguoaiee”
I have undertaken a project which I hardly hope to succeed in, but which I feel soends, traditions, and songs of Louisiana Unfortunately I shall never be able to do this thoroughly without ood deal, perhaps