American Compozer's Inspiration from Cathay: A Real Futurist Mr. Henry Eichheim, musician and composer, who is making his third visit to the Orient to steep himself in its music, is confident that the musical principles of the Grient will some day dominate Western music. "I might go further," went on Mr. Eichheim, in conversation with a representative of the "N. C. Daily News" on Monday, '"'and sey that if the musical genius of China develops it will, 500 years from now, set the musical standard for the world."
"Tf music is the organization of sound," continued the enthusiast, "then the Chinese have succeeded better in co-ordinating sounds in a rhythmic unit than any other people, Rhythm is far superior to melody and this is where the Chinese excel. Debussy, who studied Javanese music, realized this and that is what gives his music its exquisite perfume. Ravel knows it, and that is why he stands foremost among modern composers."
"No, I didn'& always feel in this way about the music of the Orient, My training has been entirely in Western music, for many years as one of the first violins in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, then for four years as conductor of an orchestra in Winchester until seven years ago I came to the East to get away from the Boston atmosphere. My first day in Japan was a revelation, my first sight of China an inspiration. I was enthralled at once by their architecture and art, but their music repelled me. Finally, when I was listening to the great Nob drama in Japan the thought swept across me: No nation with an arf, a literature, a drama like this can have an inferior music. The fault must be in myself. So I listened again and again and again until the pulsating, vibrating rhythm underlying their musica] compositions sank into. my _cons-sciousness. I tried to empty myself of my Western critical attitude, to receive passively and in my compositions I feel I have been able' to some slight extent to reproduce the sense of rhythm which, under some more capable exponent than I, will some day revolutionize musical theory."
Mr. Eichhem has written a number of orchestral pieces, arranged first for a small orchestra of 11 pieces and afterwards for one of 75 instruments. These were first produced at the Musical Festival at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and proved so popular that the composer was asted to conduct their performance by the symphony orchestras of Chicago and Boston and gave two concerts in New York with the orchestration for a smaller number. He employs trombones and horns, and makes much use of bells, assing a sob of five which he got in Hangchow. The tities of these compositions indicate something of their quality, "Chinese Sketches:' Nocturnal
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