CLASSICAL MUSIC

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 300, 23 March 1945, Page 5

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Sir-I agree with "Arco" that jazz, swing, and crooners are "tripe." "Level with the Times" (Riversdale) says "too much of one and not enough of another would result almost in a riot." At present we get far more "tripe". than music, and, if the proportions were made even, listeners of your correspondent’s type would no doubt start a riot. It would be their nature to do so. Jazz, swing, and crooning are just jungle noises, and only caught the fancy of some listeners as an escape from the strain of war news. Anyone with the least musical taste will agree that the discords of jazz resemble the angry cries of baboons and apes. (The ape is, I believe, the most intelligent of the monkey tribe.) A number of lusty boys armed with tin cans, sheets of metal, and football whistles would, if they all played different tunes, make as much "music" as the cultured "ape" or jazz band. Has your correspondent ever looked at the craniums of the alleged "bands" on the screen? Any physiologist would tell him that there is a. remarkable absence of "brain" in them, and the "conductor" is, as he should be, the most inane of the lot. The stupid barbarism of the bandsmen is also shown in their method of standing up in groups to let forth a blast or bellow of discord. This is almost as silly as the Nazi goosestep.

H. E.

LAWRENCE

(Stratford).

Sir-"*R.M.N." seems to be barking up the wrong tree when he attacks "Arco" in your last issue. "Arco" does not condemn swing addicts, but merely expresses his sorrow at the deplorable lack of taste which the average listener appears to show. Seventy-five per cent of the youth of to-day has the mistaken idea that anything new is good. I am sufficiently old fashioned to reserve judgment until a tune or song has proved itself. How many popular recordings of nasal crooners last more than six months? The music "Arco" prefers has lasted through generations. My advice to "R.M.N." is to get together with some of his cronies, preferably in a large paddock, and play his music on a portable gramophone to his heart’s delight. As "R.M.N." himself says: "Everyone to his own taste." :

SWEET YOUNG THING

(Auckland)

Sir-Why do we have so much classical music from 1ZM? When it was taken over by the New Zealand broadcasting stations again I looked forward to some good variety programmes, But alas! I was disillusioned. From 7.0 to 9.0 every evening we get classical music. Could we not have a programme of the latest song hits and dance music say at least two evenings q week from 7.0 to 9,0? When one has worked all day it is very tiring having to listen to a lot

of heavy music.-

VARIETY

(Auckland).