Page:Harper's New Monthly Magazine - v109.djvu/136

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Some of the best instrumental music is of a descriptive nature, reflecting vividly the incidents of every-day life. Peculiar fingerings of the strings, close harmonies, curious snaps and slides and twangs, and the accurate observations of an ear attuned to all the sounds of nature, enter largely into the composition of these. In the "Cackling Hen" the cackle, hard, high, and cheerfully prosaic, is remarkably well rendered, as may be easily seen.

"Big Jim" is a dance tune in which the major melody drops suddenly into a running repetition of two or three minor notes, beautifully like the drumming of rain on a cabin roof.

In the "Fox-Chase," the baying of the hounds, from the eager start of the pack as they take up the trail to the last lingering yelp, after the quarry is treed, is given by the banjo accompaniment. The spoken "patter" runs along irrespective of rhythm, interpolated irregularly with the hunting-cry. It is almost impossible to reduce the effect to musical notation; the emphasis is all on the hound's deep note; the thumb-string, while almost imperceptible to the ear, still plays an important part in producing the rhythm. It begins with a regular movement, which grows more and more rapid and exciting as it progresses; then, as the fox is treed, the close comes, suddenly, with the baying of "Old Sounder."

Boys, blow up the dogs and let's have a fox-chase. Get the horn and give her a toot. Call up the dogs and we'll go down on the creek. Whoopee! Go it, Lead!

Come on, boys, and let's go down on the