682 



The Review of Reviews. 



MUSIC AND ART. 



RELIGIOUS SONGS OF THE 

 CAUCASUS. 



A SHORT time ago Madame Eugenie Lineff, a 

 Russian teacher of singing and a well-known 

 folk-song collector, made some investigations 

 concerning the sacred folk-music of the 

 Molokans (Tiflis), the Doochobors, and the Com- 

 munity of New Israel. The November Musical 

 Times publishes the result of her inquiries con- 

 cerning the Doochobors. 



THOU SHALT NOT KILL. 



The word " Doochobor,!' we are told, means 

 " spirit-wrestler," and the Doochobors are 

 people who have been banished to a desolate 

 region in the Caucasus for their persistence in 

 following the precept of the Bible, " Thou shalt 

 not kill." They refuse to serve as soldiers. 

 During the summer months they have both to 

 sow and reap. In these wet mountains only oats 

 and barley are usually grown, and the crops 

 have to be cut while still green and not above 

 one foot high. Yet their wonderful capacity for 

 work and their perfect communal organisation 

 allow them to live well. They keep cows and 

 sell horses and cattle and supply milk to the 

 Armenian cheesemakers. Madame Lineff arrived 

 on the scene on the eve of their principal festi- 

 val, June 29th, the commemoration day of the 

 refusal of the sect to serve in the army. 



BROTHERLY KISSING. 



Early in the morning the people in holiday 

 attire started in their fugons (large vans drawn 

 by two horses) and formed a procession to the 

 sacred cave where Lukeria Vassilievna, for a 

 long time one of their leaders, had passed her 

 days of meditation. The singing began with the 

 eight beatitudes. An elderly woman with a 

 strong voice led the verse with deep feeling, and 

 then it was taken up by the congregation. This 

 over, the men and women divided into opposite 

 rows, and a new psalm was started and the 

 ceremony of kissing began. The first two men, 

 having shaken hands three times, gave each 

 other a brotherly kiss ; then they bowed to one 

 another and to the women standing opposite. 

 The next pair did the same, and the ceremony 

 was continued to the end of the row. Then the 

 women performed the same ceremony through- 

 out, psalm-singing being kept up all the time. 

 Madame Lineff recorded the psalms by phono- 

 graph, and succeeded in getting thirty psalms 

 and chants in this way. 



SOMBRE MUSIC. 



The text of the psalms is only partly taken 

 from Holy Scripture. Composed by several 



generations of Doochobors, they are sung 

 entirely from memory. The life of the sect, full 

 of persecution, is reflected in the sombre charac- 

 ter of their singing. The melody does not flow 

 like a folk-tune. Owing to the slowness of the 

 tempo, the custom is to spread one syllable over 

 several sounds and to give a peculiar accentua- 

 tion to the most expressive words. As the sing- 

 ing progresses, the performance rises from piano 

 to an immense crescendo. As an example of 

 Doochobor singing, the music of a quasi-reli- 

 gious chant is given, entitled " Are Ye Doves? " 

 The words of the second verse run : — 



We are angels, 



We are archangels, 



From heaven-land 



We are the messengers. 



We are sent by the Lord 



Over all the world, 



All the wide world. 



MR. HAMMERSTEIN'S 

 NEW PLANS. 



To the November number of the American 

 edition of the World's Work Mr. Oscar 

 Hammerstein has contributed an article entitled 

 " What I am Trying to Do." 



He says he is now raising his voice in the 

 wilderness of musical America with a view to 

 providing opportunities for the great natural 

 musical talent which exists in America. His plan 

 is to cover the United States, and possibly 

 Canada, with a network of opera houses. He 

 considers his work will be greater than that of 

 Mr. Carnegie, who has given library buildings 

 and books, and that by giving opera houses and 

 music he will give pleasure and build character 

 and make of the world of his children's 

 children a better place in which to live. Mr. 

 Hammerstein repeats he has done with London, 

 but he has this final ambition to carry the best 

 music to the great American public, of whose 

 appreciation he feels certain. At any rate, he is 

 never discouraged. The article is largely auto- 

 biographical, and from it we learn that Mr. 

 Hammerstein is a chemist, an engineer, and a 

 musician. He plays the flute, the piano, and the 

 violin ; and he has composed music of merit. He 

 has already bmlt more theatres than any other 

 man living or dead. His early life was not 

 happy. Born at Berlin, he left his home while 

 still a boy and sailed for New York in an emi- 

 grant ship. At New York he learned to make 

 cigars, and much of the machinery now used in 

 cigar manufacture was his invention. It was 

 from the sale of one of his patents that he 

 obtained the money to start on his theatrical 

 enterprises. 



