MUSICAL PROGRAMMES
Sir.-From time, to time there have appeared in the public press complaints about the quality of musical programmes received from the New Zealand Broadcasting Service. May I submit yet another? The general position is that many’ early morning people preparing to go to work switch on their wireless sets at considerable volume in order that they may be apprised of the time at frequent intervals without having to dash out of the bedroom or bathroom to look at the clock. For this convenience, however, they have often to pay dearly. It would be interesting to learn whether early morning programme announcers have carte blanche in the choice of records played. I have been informed that what we have to listen to, the yowling and drooling of Hollywood crooners, male and female, with equally unpleasant orchestral noises, is quite popular, This I can hardly believe, but, if so, then the lovers of such tripe should be educated out of it. After all, one of the purposes of a national broadcasting service is to supply entertainment that enlightens and not debases its audiences. May I also deprecate the large and growing demand for, or, more probably, supply of "harmonica" items? In my early days this was an instrument of torture used by small boys to drive their parents round the bend and was known as a mouth organ. Granted that this instrument has, through the years, been improved to some extent, and that some of those modern mouth organ maestros are now soaring into the rarified atmosphere of Bach, Beethoven, etc., one still can’t shake off the uneasy thought that, as the gifted performer approaches the mike to gulp out his version of, say, a Brandenburg Concerto, he is pulling his instrument out of his trouser pocket and tapping it vigorously against the palm of his hand to get rid of the crumbs. It may be that I am hypercritical. The medium of my own modest musical talent is the Scottish Highland bagpipe. I am, therefore, in a class that can appreciate only the finest and purest of instrumental and vocal music.
T.R.
N.
(Wellington)
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 892, 7 September 1956, Page 5
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355MUSICAL PROGRAMMES New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 892, 7 September 1956, Page 5
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