MODERN MUSIC
The Editor, "The Listener." Sir,-I was pleased to get an answer by R.J.H. suggesting that the next time I heard a good swing band I should listen a little intelligently. No one with any intelligence would listen to the music of which I am complaining. I have no quarrel with Jazz music that harmonises; any lover of music can appreciate this. : I also thank R.J.H. for his information about the people who have turned to Jazz, some of them, he says, having graduated under such famous masters as Stokowski. One is tempted to say "How have the mighty fallen." I cannot help thinking that the noise of train whistles, grinding brakes, and the scream of tramcars, etc., have been incorporated in a certain type of our modern music, which has been aptly called "noise in a hurry." The Maori is a maker of harmony and rhythm, and it is always a pleasure to listen to his singing. (Thank heaven he doesn’t croon). There are no doubt many people who remember the Maori Battalion singing on Gallipoli on August 6, 1915, before taking No. 2 Outpost. This was indeed memorable. It is intensely annoying, after listening to a good piece of music, to have one’s ears suddenly assailed with (if I may coin the word) Epsteinian noises. It is like the effect produced on us when we are driving along a beautiful country road, round a corner and are confronted by a hideous sign exhorting us to buy so-and-so’s petrol. One offends the ear, the other the eye. Yours. etc..
ANZAC
Otorohanga, May 7, 1940. --
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 48, 24 May 1940, Page 12
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266MODERN MUSIC New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 48, 24 May 1940, Page 12
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