GUARDING THE PUBLIC TASTE

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21886, 12 September 1936, Page 9

GUARDING THE PUBLIC TASTE

[By LISTENER.]

No one in the twentieth century who is at all aw&re will deny that the present state of public taste in all matters of art is deplorable. It is unpleasant but true to say that in the history of English culture, with which our own Zealand culture (what there is of it) is inextricably bound, up, this situation is unparalleled. Yet generally accepted standards concerning these matters have not always been as low or as confused as they are now. A gradual decline set in about the beginning of the nineteenth century. I shall mention some of the reasons for this as I proceed, and readers will no doubt be able to supplement my remarks from their own observation and experience. As early as 1829 the “Edinburgh Review” had noticed this decline and was quick to discover where, in the future, the responsibility for the keeping of the public taste was to rest.

The “Edinburgh Review” said; “Were we required to characterise this age of ours by any single epithet we should be tempted to call it not an heroical, devotional, philosophical or moral age, but above all a mechanical age. . . .

To us who live in the. midst of it all and see continually the faith, hope, and practice of everyone founded on mechanism of one kind or another, it is apt to seem quite natural, and as if it could never have been otherwise At no former era has literature, the printed communication of thought, been of such importance as it is now. The true Church of England, and the future of English literature at this moment lie in the hands of the editors of its newspapers.” Nineteenth Century Critics Before the nineteenth century the average man was prepared to be guided in music and painting and literature by the judgments of critics who were in the minority. It is signficant that in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries the representative poet was Milton, the journalist, Defoe, the musician, Purcell, the voice of the Puritan conscience, Bunyan. What names in the twentieth century can rival these in popularity? Masefield, C. E. Montague, Cole Porter? For lack of spokesmen I must assume that this century has no conscience worth being vocal about. Together with the Bible, the works of Milton, Defoe and Bunyan remained the inevitable, if not the only books in the home of the decent working man for a couple of centuries, an invaluable educationa" influence with whatever purpose they may have been read, “for thread BU n '’ yan and Milton for religious instruction as to attend Elizabethan drama for its ‘action’ is to receive an education unconsciously.” Now this meant that the reading public of those times was homogeneous, unlike our own day when the reading public, which now comprises every individual in the country, is divided into varying levels of culture. The intelligent reader of George Santayana, Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, and L, H. Myers is unlikely to be interested in the works of Charles Morgan, Hugh Walpole, Arnold Bennett or the later novels of H. ,G. Wells. Between this second and the lower levels of taste the division becomes less marked. And this is true for music and painting. For example, the furniture of the humblest cottage was, before the nineteenth century, as beautiful as that of the most aristocratic castle because it was as useful. I look about my own room and at the risk of being impertinent, I ask my readers to look about theirs and wonder if the same could be said for us.

A Contrast The point of my remarks was brought home to me last night when I listened in to an excellent programme from 3YL, and heard “A Royal Concert” by Couperin, which was written at the command of Louis XIV. for one of his Sunday entertainments. This exquisite work truly reflected the fastidious taste of that age, for Couperin’s popularity during his lifetime was nationwide. After the programme from 3YL was over I turned to another station and heard “You Are My Lucky Star,” written by the command of the people, one would suppose, because of its popularity in our time. Professor I. A. Richards has made this very clear in the following remarks: “There is some evidence that such things as ‘best-sellers,’ magazine verse, mantelpiece pottery, academy pictures, music hall songs, county council buildings, war memorials are decreasing in merit.” Later he adds. “Best-sellers in all the arts, exemplifying as they do the most general levels of attitude development, are worthy pf very close study. No theory of criticism is 1 satisfactory which is not able to explain their wide appeal and to give clear reasons why those who disdain them are not necessarily snobs,”

The Reason In part, unscrupulous use of the cheapness of printing has brought things to this pass. It is at this very point that the wireless may be of Service. On the other hand it might do incalculable harm by assisting this flight from traditional cultural standards. It is for broadcasting not only to check it but to provide the encouragement and energy for a new ascent. This will not be easy, but the Minister for Broadcasting has shown his willingness to co-operate, by turning to a man whose sole concern is the rehabilitation of our national culture, and through that our national temperament.

I am pleased to quote the words of the first Director of Broadcasting: “The time has come when radio can be used as a stimulus'to raise the standard of thought and artistic appreciation in the whole community.” This is no time for a “recherche de temps perdu.” Sighing enviously for a return of the old days before the machine is to evade the responsibility. Even in our mass-civilisa-tion a vigorous and living minority culture, closely in touch with its environment, though divorced from

its public, still exists. The rate at which cultural news penetrates from one level to another is surprisingly slow. Ideas and modes of feeling that were commonplace before the war are still filtering through to us by way of the plays of Shaw and Galsworthy, and the novels of Sir Philip Gibbs and Wells. Now there is no need for middlemen. Direct impact can come through the wireless.