Presenting Music to Millions

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 1, 12 July 1935, Page 22

Presenting Music to Millions

A Decade Has Passed Which Promises

A Great Feast For [he Future

(By

Bolton

Woods

have witnessed no more amazing development than that provided by the gramophone, with its electrical recording of music and other entertainment. The gramophone record is the most potent factor in New Zealand broadcasting to-day, and will remain so for many a long day until the inventive genius of our talented technicians provides us with more breath-taking inventions by which to bridge further distance and dispel intetference. ~~ , The whole history of these allies for the public wealyadio and the gramophone-is absorbingly interesting. It is a theme for endless personal discussions and a topie which journalists; authors and critics find inexhaustive. It is a far ery to the days of Edison’s recording on.a tin- © I yadio. had never happened, the last ten years would

foil-covered cylinder the first verse of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," a feat so fraught with possibilities. Like many of the stories of the early days of the talking machine, the one of Hdison’s first success is a thrill, but the story of an intelligent fox-terrier that made a hobby of listening ¢o one of the earliest phonographs equals it in human interest. Within the pages ..- of Mr, 'T. Lindsay Buick’s book, "The. .° Romance of the Gramophone," the. . story of Nipper.is--. set forth in vivid detail and lively

styie. The story will, bear resteling; and, briely summarised, is as follows :-- Francis Barraud (1856-1924), fourth son of Henry Barraud, the celebrated animal painter, inherited: from his brother, also an artist, a bright fox-terrier named Nipper. The artist, Mr. Buick tells us, was an early addict to the phonograph, and as He ‘his instrument, Nipper, all . ears and with longing eyes looking down into the horn, would sit listening to what he presumed to be his master’s. voice. Mr, Barraud conceived the idea of painting Nipper in this characteristic attitude. The picture finished,’ it was some little time before the artist and. the most interested of all parties, the Gramophone Company, came together and. hegan that happy connection which was severed only by the. death of Mr. Barraud. After certain alterations, the picture was purchased by the company, and, with the possible exception of the renowned "Bubbles," by Millais, it became the most famous sidhatians advertisement in the whole world. New Zealand has a special interest in this picture, beeuusé. its creator Was the’ nephew of oné of the pirtieers of: this country, the late Mr. 0. D. Barraud; also an artist, whose paintings of New Zealand scenery are now among the most

highly valued of our early art treasures. The uncle arrived in Wellington by the Pilgrim in 1849. The nephew was treated generously by his patrons and enjoyed a substantial annuity up to the time of his death. Art, plus an idea, produced a result that is indeed one of the romances of modern commerce and industry, Nipper died a few years after his now famed portrait was made in 1899, and was buried in the garden of the studio where he spent so many happy days. Radio, too, has had its romances, and when its history comes to be set down posterity will find it engrossing reading. But radio at the moment is giving musicians "furiously to think," and many hitherto accepted and cherished ideas are going by the board. If musicians are finding it more than

ever necessary to measure up to the relentless demands of the microphone and are being compelled to give listeners ever inereasingly efficient performances, listeners on the other hand are getting something they never had before-a closer approximation to the real aims of the composer, which is, in the long run, what is the most important. All the old tricks of the concert hall are of no _ avail in broad- . casting--- so-called "nersonality" in conductors and artiata fa Incest Avar

we VEN ON oN OUNY WT YS the air; the musical sophistry of our virtuosi fails to im‘pose itself on a radio audience, or tather that multiplicity of audiences of anything from one to ten persons, . Radio may be destined to become the musicians’ Bldorado, but at the moment, in New Zealand and in similar communities remote from the big eentres of art, the mainstay of the programme builders igs records. These "discs of frozen’music," as they have been graphically. called,*have in themselves been improved out.of all recognition within the pastidecade. Given a modern recording at the one end and a:reasonably efficient: receiving set at the other, the radio listener obtains a result: rarely: possible of achievement in any other way. Not music. alone, but plays .are being broadcast today, that, a few years ago, would have made the moaths of lovers of the drama water. On a certain Sunday evening, in 1983, radio history was made in New Zealand when 2YA broadcast a B.B.C, recorded play, "Christopher Wren." The impression created throughout the whole Dominion was qa profound one, and it augured well for the future of radio: entertainment in. these Islands. Is it.any- wonder, -then-that.in. the-country. we-have to-day anything up to half a million amateur critics? Listeners, whether they are (Continued on page 24.)

And Better Ahead (Continued on page 22.) aware of it or not, are reaching out for better things in radio. — Ill-informed much. of the criticism may be, but on the other hand, it cannot: all be condemned as ignorant and pointless. With ever-improving standards in radio fare, the listeners’ appreciative sense does not yemain stationary. His cultural development proceeds, and the acceptance of the Broadcasting Board’s new programme schedule with its liberal provision of the finest music of all time, is eloquent testimony to the advanced tastes of that section of the listening public which to-day takes its symphonjes, sonatas, operag and other master works in its stride. As if in anticipation of our radio requirements in these distant parts, the recording companies have set about providing for music lovers a comprehensive library of ideal records of all the greatest works of the last four centuries. In the words of Myr. Brnest Newman, "What is wanted is the replacement of many of the present: records by others, made in each case by the one artist in the world who is best qualified for the performance of this or that work." It is a matter for congratulation to all concerned that this very thing is already in progress on a ' broad seale. ‘ The best days lie ahead, and in a few more years listeners will find radio more indispensable than ever. By a happy coincidence, broadcasting in New Zealand shares with the electrical recording process in England the attainment of its tenth birthday. From the outset they have marched together from. strength to strength-lusty youngsters both, they have in store for the listening public of the future, joys and delights that might easily make the present generation envious of its succeSsors.