TONE PICTURES OF WAR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 29, 12 January 1940, Page 19

TONE PICTURES OF WAR

Warsaw Fell to the Melody of Chopin

HERE is no art more intangible To more forceful in. its influence than music. Thus, with the present war no more burning question has arisen for broadcasters on the home fronts than what position music shall occupy. American broadcasters are studying what they call the neutrality of music (and jokes). Should the music of belligerent nations be banned? Should the leaders of warring countries be made Aunt Sallies for the comedians? Music, of course, is the backbone of broadcasting, and as the New York Times points out, many of the vertebrae are foreign. If, as nations go to war, their melodic cartilages should be lifted out of the radio programme, the spine would become weaker. But, after four months of bombs bursting in air, there is proof through the night that music, whether it be "Pomp and Circumstance" of "Gotterdammerung," is not to be blasted from the radio. Broadcasters in the United States realise that in maintaining a neutral position it is more important to be careful of the spoken word than of song. There is to be no war in music. Arturo Toscanini has announced that he will play a Beethoven cycle in his American season, also an all-Debussy programme and a Russian concert. Music plays so many roles in radio, In drama, melody is called upon to paint the scenery in the mind. It is used to knit the acts, to string a theme through a play, to provide atmosphere or to establish locale, to indicate a mood, or to denote an intermission. Poland’s Ordeal As varied and clever as have been the sounds, no interlude has been as strange or so effective as that of the brave pianist in Poland, who broadcast Chopin while shells fell all around him in the " unspeakable inferno," Warsaw’s historic broadcasts become a part of radio history. While voices flashed out from Polish aerials telling of bombardment by artillery and aircraft, there was still the music of the piano, which, according to the announcer, might be blown into splinters at any moment, so dreadful was the attack. Warsaw was described as " practically in ruins." Tchaikovski’s "Overture 1812" would have been appropriate music had the Polish announcer been in a radio studio in peace-time. Here in an actual broadcast were the scenes that narrators so many times have attempted to drama-tise-the horizon all aflame, the sky aglow in red, church bells ringing, and bombs bursting everywhere.

" Overture 1939" But for Poland’s "Overture 1939" it was. Chopin played on the radio, with no clashing of cymbals and blare of trumpets as Tchaikovski had it in 1812, Here was enchanting melody that would live on and on after the raiders ceased to roar. And when the pianist had ended, the announcer came back to exclaim, again and again, "We will never give in!" Keeping Up Morale What should be the role of music in war? The first and most obvious func tion of broadcasting in time of cone flict is the dissemination of news, the pronouncements of leaders, and instructions to citizens. But in war no less than in peace people need relief and relaxation; entertainment to cheer, comfort, and steady nerves. And, while it is impossible for the people to congregate in places of amusement, radio takes the entertainment directly to them. That is the way the English broadcasters see it. No Banning of German Music Should the music of the enemy be banned? Recognising that war inevitably gives life an "uncivilised perspective," and that violent passions are aroused, often ousting reason and good sense, the British Broadcasting Corporation asserts in its journal The Listener: "In the struggle that is upon us we must never forget that what we are engaged in is a fight for reason against unreason. It behoves us therefore to cling fast to reason. We must be on our guard, for example, against the kind of craziness that seized some sections of our people in the last war. One recalls the demand that all German music should be banned. Nonsense of that sort is an offence against those very values which we are fighting to preserve."