Folk Songs Parodied
S Anna Russell says, "There is someE thing dormant inside all of us, which is stagnant." In my case, one of those dormant-stagnant things is a temptation to make rude noises when certain types of artless folk-songs are being ever so solemnly sung. (I seem to remember that somewhere in Jerome, the "three men," told that a German folk-song is uproariously funny, shriek with energetic politeness throughout, only to be informed by the enraged singer that it was a most tragic ballad.) So the stagnant waters rippled in sympathy when I heard from 1ZB the talented Peter Ustinov. performing his Phoney FolkSongs. This shrewd guying of the less endurable national songs is a fine piece of mimicry-a kind of highbrow Danny Kaye turn, Having thus warmed to Mr. Ustinov, I was surprised later to find that his parody of a Mozart opera lacked the .bite of the other burlesques. Perhaps only. Mozart could really parody Mozart. Peter Ustinov wouldn’t be the first to harbour the illusion that the act that panicked the boys and girls at last Tuesday’s cocktail party could survive the scrutiny of a less intimate audience.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540730.2.22.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 784, 30 July 1954, Page 10
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192Folk Songs Parodied New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 784, 30 July 1954, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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