MUSIC WEEK

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 39, 14 August 1930, Page 23

MUSIC WEEK

EXCELLENT BROADCASTS

BUT WERE THEY POPULAR ?

There is every probability that last week's broadcasts of the Wellington Music Week will be the subject of much more discussion than they have already aroused. Whether the organisers of the musical festival were "rise in making ■"one hundred per cent" use of broadcasting is for them to worry about. Whether the listeners liked the programmes is for the Broadcasting Company to consider as a guide in future. jit will probably "be found that they were not, on the whole, a great success. Even for the purposes of the festival itself there are many who consider that the programmes could have been better chosen, and should have been lighter. As "broadcast music, many of the items were too long and scholarly. It can bo assumed that people who attend a concert go prepared to hear what has been announced for performance; if they do not like the prospect they can stay away,. The broadcaster's everlasting problem is to please the multitude if he can, and he fcnows that the vast majority will not appreciate what a select audience will ra,Ye over. He counts himself virtuous if he can avoid falling into the opposite trap of supplying too much musical rubbish, and can not only avoid this treachery to art, but induce his hearers to tolerate and finally to embrace a liberal supply of really good maeac. Success in this endeavour has to be delicately sought, but it can be attained. It cannot bo done by too heavy an attack, and it is probable that the music week programmes have ibeen of no great service in converting the Philistines.

Comment was made last week on the improved quality of the broadcasting shown by 2YA during so much of Music Week as had passed. This improvement was maintained throughout the | week, and in some opinions even increased; and this waa all the stranger seeing that the Town Hall hag laboured under the reputation of being a "bad relay." It appears that no alterations whatever were made at 2YA in preparation for the Mnsic Week series; but that something was done was abundantly evident, and one is driven to tho conclusion that for once in a long while there was a happy placing of microphones which dealt far more justly with concerted items than usual. The microphone used for solo items in the big hall could have been moved with advantage; in a number of items it favoured the soloist too much and left the accompaniment too weak.

The improvement in the output of 2YA during Music Week, on the absence of any change of equipment, should convince anyone that the earlier defects were due to errors in the ■use of the apparatus, and these should not be allowed to recur. It is disappointing -to find that the studio transmissions do not show a corresponding improvement, orchestral items being thin and poor, and the articulation of vocal quartets indefinite. 2YA, the most powerful New Zealand station, and by far the most costly, should not be allowed to retain its present distinction of producing the poorest quality of the YA! group. It would be a good idea if a few "silent nights" could be used for experiments on improving the studio technique, by making a series of experimental broadcasts with one of the station orchestras and a group of singers. ' Tests with a gramophone are of no use for the purpose.