ps is right, with a far seeing
eye, when he singles the song of the despised race as the national type.

Another consideration fits here. It has been suggested that the
imitative sense of the negro has led him to absorb elements of other
song. It is very difficult to separate original African elements of song
from those that may thus have been borrowed. At any rate, there is no
disparagement of the negro's musical genius in this theory. On the
contrary, it would be almost impossible to imagine a musical people that
would resist the softer tones of surrounding and intermingling races.
We know, to be sure, that Stephen Foster, the author of "The Old Folks
at Home," "Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground," and other famous ballads,
was a Northerner, though his mother came from the South. We hear, too,
that he studied negro music eagerly. It is not at all inconceivable,
however, Foster's song may have been devoid of negro elements, that the
colored race absorbed, wittingly or unwittingly, something of the vein
into their plaints or lullabies,--that, indeed, Foster's songs may have
been a true type that stirred their own imitation. From all points of
view,--the condition of slavery, the trait of assimilation and the
strong gift of musical expression may have conspired to give the negro a
position and equipment which would entitle his tunes to stand as the
real folk-song of America.

The eccentric accent seems to have struck the composer strongly. And
here is a strange similarity with Hungarian song,--though there is, of
course, no kinship of race whatever between Bohemians and Magyars. One
might be persuaded to find here simply an ebullition of rhythmic
impulse,--the desire for a special fillip that starts and suggests a
stronger energy of motion than the usual conventional pace. At any rate,
the symphony begins with just such strong, nervous phrases that soon
gather big force. Hidden is the germ of the first, undoubtedly the chief
theme of the whole work.

It is more and more remarkable how a search will show the true
foundation of almost all of Dvorak's themes. Not that one of them is
actually borrowed, or lacks an original, independent reason for being.

Whether by imitation or not, the pentatonic scale of the Scotch is an
intimate part of negro song. This avoidance of the seventh or leading
tone is seen throughout the symphony as well as in the traditional
jubilee tunes. It may be that this trait was merely confirmed in th