A Program of American Music
 
      American music today is made up of three distinct living idioms--a 
      folk, a popular, and an art music.
 
      The traditions of all these three derive from Europe: The bulk 
      of our folk music from the British Isles, that of our art music 
      from the great composers of the continent. As in the case of 
      the American language, the folk music has undergone sea change 
      in its migrations across the Atlantic.
 
      In addition, certain other national and racial minorities have 
      created new hybrids, the French in the Southeast, the Spanish 
      in the Southwest, the Germans and the Scandinavians in the North. 
      Above all, the Negro has made the most distinctive contribution.
 
      The people sang as they built a country, recalling the old and 
      celebrating the new. The voices of miners, farmers, lumberjacks, 
      workers of all kinds, their wives and children, swelled into 
      a fide of music rich and strange but vital and undeniably American.
 
      Our popular music, the music of the cities, draws from the sources 
      of both of the other and older idioms. Today, like the motion 
      picture, it is an export commodity to all ports of the world.
 
      The selections on this program are drawn from these three musical 
      currents and sung by persons and groups--professional and amateur--who 
      know and sing them best.
 
      Thursday, June 8, 1939 
 
      The White House