ITCH OR IRRITANT?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 22, 24 November 1939, Page 12

ITCH OR IRRITANT?

To The Editor, "The Listener" Sir.-The article in the current issue of The Listener on the above subject provides me with an opportunity to give expression to my feelings. Whether swing is an itch or irritant, it is not incurable, and now would be a good time for both broadcasting services to gather up all the records of the bish, bang, and blare variety and send them io the various military camps to be used for rifle practice. Further, are announcers expected to know something of music, or are they just announcers? Recently I heard one in a ZB Station announce something as "beautiful," and that which came forth was absolutely vile; a panel beater at work, or a dog crying for its owner would have sounded very much sweeter. Is the love of good music so much on the down grade that the air is rent with singers who cannot

sing, and with musicians who do not! play music? If ever a lot of what is poured out was music, then it has been diabolically mutilated and murdered. I think the conductors of the high-class orchestras, such as Sir Henry Wood, Sir Thomas Beecham, Eric Coates, etc., should have got the word " orchestra" protected, so that such combinations of din makers as some I could name would not be entitled to use it. I heard one of these giving Gilbert and Sullivan selections, but the result of their efforts was enough to make the remains of those famous gentlemen squirm in their resting-places. I have tried to count the number of artists in one well advertised combination and I do not think there can be more than six; four may be nearer the correct figure; but it seems

that each player is bent on getting as much noise out of his instrument as it is possible to make. It is a travesty to name it an orchestra. Jeanette Macdonald and Jessie Matthews can sing well, but their talent is dissipated upon the poor stuff they give expression to. The sentiment contained in many of the inferior type of record is worthy of better associations in music and voice. The outpouring hour after hour of this low grade stuff makes me wonder how on earth the so-called " artists" were allowed in a recording studio a second time and not booted out on the first appearance. "Swing" may have been a good name for what it is applied to, but there should have been only one illustration of it, and that from a scaffold. Yours, etc., ~~}

Sefton,

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‘October 24, 1939.