More Light!
ERHAPS it is fallacious to imagine that Anglo-Saxons alone feel that solemnity is inseparable from seriousness, yet that Puritan grimness in the approach to the arts, which led Chesterton to beg someone to lead him to a pub, does seem peculiar to the English, and has its local manifestation on 1YC. Musically, 1YC is more adventurous than it once was, and the talks and_plays are, of their kind, admirable. But, save for the occasional bright remark from Owen Jensen introducing Mozart, so little happens on this station which sug-
gests a sense of humour, an awareness of wit, or even just plain life, that an earnest Pakistani visitor might well gain the impression that the regular 1YC listener is a cross between Cotton Mather and Dean Inge. Yet surely the most assiduous YC fan must flip the dial sometimes in search of a little light telief. Why not, then, more talks in which wit and vivacity are as important as information; why not some readings from the great nonsense writers; why not an occasional dash of irreverence about some of the music, or some satire to sweeten the air? So long as the present policy remains, of permitting nothing which cracks the unsmiling mask of austere solemnity 1YC wears, regulars are deprived of even that human comedy which lends spice to many serious music recitals.
J.C.
R.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19560928.2.35.6
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 895, 28 September 1956, Page 19
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229More Light! New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 895, 28 September 1956, Page 19
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