MUSIC AND WAR WORK

New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 201, 30 April 1943, Page 7

MUSIC AND WAR WORK

Results Of Three-Year Investigation

N June 23, 1940, the ‘Music While You Work" programme was introduced by the BBC, and Wynford Reynolds began to take notes of its effects. The result of his investigations ap-

pears in a pamphlet recently issued by the BBC: Music While You Work: a Summary of Research on Music in Industry. We reprint what he calls "certain basic conclusions." ‘ He says: 1, The music should be familjar to the ordinary worker. Singing, humming, or whistling is a sure sign that the music is having its proper tonic effect. Music can be easily overdone, however, and he recommends two and a-half hours daily as the limit. The best time to give music is either at the beginning of the day’s swork, as an antidote to bad weather conditions or nervous strain, or at the end of a particularly tiring day. 2. The melody should be clear and well defined. The workers want to hear a tune that rides over factory noises, They, incidentally, are much better at hearing it than anyone not used to that particular factory. 3. The tone level or volume should be constant, and there should be no variations in audibility between one part of a tune or programme and another, 4. The tempo or rhythm = should create a bright and cheerful atmosphere. Extremes of fastness or slowness should be avoided, Most important, rhythm and tempo should not be thought of in terms of "working speeds." They should be considered as a means of creating a spirit of cheerfulness and gaiety in workers in industrial processes.

5. Paragraph No. 4 does not apply at all either to office and executive staff for whom music is in itself unsuitable, nor to highly skilled workmen on individual tasks. 6. The music is best suited for work-

ers who are employed on repetition or other monotonous work (especially female fabour). For them, certain types of music are definitely undesirable. The tone of an organ is unsuitable for amplification in factories. "Hot" music is unsuitable and so is "jazzing’’ of any melody. The rhythm should be clear, but unobtrusive, and any lack of a "melodic line" involving harmony or complex rhythm tends to create confusion of sound. rit 7. Loud-speakers should be small and well-placed about the factory, rather than large, and only one or two to a shop. Most Popular Music The following types of music are the most popular, in this order: 1. Dance bands, Novelty bands-ac-cordion, mandolin, banjo, etc. 2. Theatre orchestrag-the revue or music hall type of orchestra, combining certain dance band features with those of a light orchestra. 3. Military and brass bands. Light orchestras-the "straight" type of orchestra playing selections from light opera and musical comedy, Viennese waltzes, intermezzi, etc, Figures show that when the foregoing principles are followed, production is increased by between 1214-15 per cent. for an hour or an hour and a-half after the programme.