WANDERING MINSTREL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 940, 16 August 1957, Page 9

WANDERING MINSTREL

HE ancient calling of the wandering minstrel was discussed by his modern counterpart, the folk singer William Clauson, when he arrived from Australia to begin his. Dominion-wide tour for the NZBS. A Swedish-Ameri-can, Mr Clauson told The Listener that there just weren’t enough kings and queens about in these hard times to keep minstrels and jesters fully employed. There were, however, public -audiences all over the world who wanted to hear the folk music of other countries, as well as their own, and who were a good deal less fickle in taste than royalty of old. A minstrel’s life is lived at a faster clip in these modern times, too. Mr Clauson sang to mixed audiences in Hong Kong, Malaya and Indonesia before crossing the Tasman Sea by airliner. On landing at Christchurch he transferred to an aircraft bound for Auckland where he opened his New Zealand tour. On the afternoon of his arrival he recorded a short interview with 1ZB’s Roving Reporter, began work on a ZB Sunday Showcase programme, attended a Mayoral reception, and then gave a press conference. If a minstrel’s head was forfeit in the t

middle ages, it’s his heart that’s likely to fail him nowadays. Heart failure should not be a source of worry to William Clauson, though, for many years to come, He is a young, energetic man with a tremendous zest for the folk music in which he has specialised, and there is no sham shyness in him. He will sing to anybody who is interested to listen. Within two days of his arrival in New: Zealand he was entertaining patients in an Auckland hospital. On the other hand, Mr Clauson will listen to anyone who can teach him a traditional song that is new to him. In his first weekend here he visited Rotorua, attended several parties at Auckland, where there were. Maori entertainers, and learnt by heart the words, melodies and guitar accompaniment of several Maori songs. He will incorporate these in the programmes he will present on the current tour, "Every country has a rich heritage of folk songs, and the heritage of the British Isles must be one of the richest of them all," Mr. Clauson said, when we asked how he added songs to his repertoire. "In Mexico the folk music tradition is very much alive and, in

fact, they are still composing folk ballads there. Of course, many of the melodies are imported from other countries, but they are handled traditionally. When I get to a country the opportunity presents itself, without too much trouble, for me to learn some cf the country’s folk songs." In learning, Mr Clauson has some advantages. As a small child his Swedish parents took him from Ohio (where he was born) to their native land, and there he acquired a second languageand a second home. He ‘still spends some four or five months of the year in Sweden, and hopes to open a Mexi-can-style restaurant in Stockholm soon. In the meantime, his ability to speak a European language has been of great assistance to him in learning not only the folk songs of Scandinavia, but of the Continental countries, too. On his return, with his parents, to the United States, they settled in Los Angeles, where he became intrigued with Spanish and Mexican music, and studied the guitar under a master of that instrument, Jose Barroso. It was Barroso who taught Mr Clauson to pluck the strings with the fingers in the classical manner, rather than with a plectrum. And it was also Barroso who taught him that the guitar, besides its percussion and rhythm effects, also had great melodic possibilities. Now the guitar is William Clauson’s inseparable companion, and it is the only accompaniment he uses. The first instrument that Mr Clauson played was the violin. He was taught by a crippled boy during, his childhood sojourn in Viskafors, Sweden. His family bought him an instrument of his own, and before long he was taking tuition at the academy. "But I wanted to sing while playing," he said, "and this didn’t fit in too well with the violin. So my mother bought me a mandolin. At one time Ii aspired to become a singer of the classics with mandolin accompaniment, and I spent about five years studying that instrument with Samuel Siegel. In fact, I didn’t quit the mandolin till I was 15." By this time Mr Clauson had been playing bit parts in Hollywood films for three years. Anna Q. Nilsson, a star of the silent film era, had introduced the 12-year-old to producer Billy Wilder, arid he had won himself his first part under Ray Milland and Ginger Rogers in The Major and the Minor. But by 1947 films \had lost much of their attraction for William Clauson. He began entertaining at army camps and gave his first concert in the New York Town Hall. For the past six years he has been singing folk songs professionally. He made his first concert tour of Europe in 1954. On tour Mr Clauson combines with his concert and collecting work the role of unofficial cultural ambassador for Sweden. By arrangement with the Swedish Broadcasting authorities he records and sends to Stockholm fifteenminute programmes comprising the folk music of the country he is visiting. In return the local broadcasting authorities receive from Radio Sweden programmes featuring the traditional music of Scandinavia. During his visit to Wellington William Clauson will be heard, with Henry Rudolph and the Capital Quartet, in a studio ‘programme of folk songs arranged by Henry Rudolph. This broadcast is scheduled for 8.15 p.m. on August 21, and will be heard from al! YA stations, 3YZ and 4YZ.