War in Song
[s there anything so nostalgic as a song which has been associated in our minds with a personal landmark or a decisive period in our lives? Even without the personal reference, the placing of songs in their historical context seems to bring out the human side of great events as nothing else can. Certainly the BBC programme The Blue and the Gray (ZB Sunday Showcase), which recreated the American War between the States through its songs, illuminated all the tragedy, waste, and pathos of this bloody war, with striking poignancy. Even the most sentimental of the songs-‘"Just before the battle, Mother," for instance-gained a new dignity from the. setting of the war, while others of more delicate feeling, such as the haunting, "All Quiet on the Potomac," directly projected the tragedy of civil war. What a musical nation the Americans are! (This programme showed plainly their spontaneous love of song-something that current "pops" and Tin Pan Alley trash tends to disguise. And thanks to Charles Chilton’s admirable script-firm in economy and evocative detail-these war-songs reflected the strange mixture of toughness and softness which seems an enduring |
American characteristic.
J.C.
R.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19570412.2.46.6
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 922, 12 April 1957, Page 25
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193War in Song New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 922, 12 April 1957, Page 25
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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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