ly could not
convince us that she knows how to sing a Brahms song. So far as I know
she has never tried to do so. A recent example comes to mind in Maria
Marco, the Spanish soprano, who sings music of her own country in her
own language with absolutely irresistible effect, but on one occasion
when she attempted _Vissi d'Arte_ she was transformed immediately into
a second-rate Italian singer. Even her gestures, ordinarily fully of
grace and meaning, had become conventionalized.

If this quality of style (which after all means an understanding of
both the surface manner and underlying purpose of a composition and an
ability to transmit this understanding across the footlights) is of
such manifest importance in the field of art music it is doubly so in
the field of popular or folk-music. A foreigner had best think twice
before attempting to sing a Swedish song, a Hungarian song, or a
Polish song, popular or folk. (According to no less an authority than
Cecil J. Sharp, the peasants themselves differentiate between the two
and devote to each a _special vocal method_. Here are his words
["English Folk-Song"]: "But, it must be remembered that the vocal
method of the folk-singer is inseparable from the folk-song. It is a
cult which has grown up side by side with the folk-song, and is, no
doubt, part and parcel of the same tradition. When, for instance, an
old singing man sings a modern popular song, he will sing it in quite
another way. The tone of his voice will change and he will slur his
intervals, after the approved manner of the street-singer. Indeed, it
is usually quite possible to detect a genuine folk-song simply by
paying attention to the way in which it is sung.") Strangers as a rule
do not attempt such matters although we have before us at the present
time the very interesting case of Ratan Devi. It is a question,
however, if Ratan Devi would be so much admired if her songs or their
traditional manner of performance were more familiar to us.

On our music hall stage there are not more than ten singers who
understand how to sing American popular songs (and these, as I have
said elsewhere at some length,[33] constitute America's best claim in
the art of music). It is very difficult to sing them well. Tone and
phrasing have nothing to do with the matter; it is all a question of
style (leaving aside for the moment the important matter of
personality which enters into an accounting for any artist's
popularity or standin