MUSICAL TASTE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 18, 22 January 1937, Page 16

MUSICAL TASTE

AN UPWARD TREND

It would hardly be a compliment to the times, perhaps, to say that music reflects the spirit of the age, writes Cuthbert Reavely in an English i*adio journal. Some of us music-lovers may sometimes be led to regret that the standard is so low. But examination proves that matters are by no means so depressing as they at first appear. To begin with, we may be grateful that the radio divides music into airtight compartments, and the system of alternative programmes enables most tastes to be satisfied; True, at 10.30 p.m., the dancers, as a rule, come into their own exclusively; but those who, like myself, do not respond to this type of sound, still have two alternatives —we can either go abroad or else to bed. Nor should the current phase of singing off the beat dismay us unduly. It is when they sing off the note that we have legitimate cause to complain. Even if many of the tunes of today are tawdry, we need not worry. We expect a kaleidoscope to present the vivid hues of a "twopence coloured" postcard, and not the soft tints of an old master. Besides, in these days, no tune, however much we dislike it, is allowed to outstay its welcome, even by the most ardent of its devotees; whereas, Mozart's smug little "Wiegenlied," for example, continues to be performed, together with other "classic" trash. • So, you see, we have much to be grateful for. The incurable high-brow is fond of deploring the low taste of his fellowmen—in music. as in everything else. Actually, the general trend in all fields is undoubtedly upwards. The enormous advance of education is mainly responsible for that. Before the war, it was no uncommon sight to see artisans returning home in the Underground Railway with little to do but grin vacantly and self-con-sciously at one another. Now. the manual labourer sits shoulder to shoulder with the business man and city worker, reading his evening paper or periodical with as much appreciation and intelligence as his neighbour. The typist and shop-assistant—and what a joy they are to look at today!— having completely outstripped their French sisters in chic, will amaze you, not by their ignorance, as in the bad old days, but by their knowledge. The sudden, down-at-heel drab, who was formerly the domestic servant, has passed for ever, to be replaced by a smart, alert, expert young lady, capable of holding her own intellectually. Musical taste is a national barometer! Like everything else, it is incapable of remaining stationary; it must either go up or down. In Victorian days, mustachioed subalterns rendered tales of the massacre of defenceless natives with machine-guns more palatable to swooning damsels by the interpolation of drawing-room ballads of sickliest sentiment. I strongly suspect that the moving recital of amorous intervention on the part of the gentleman on the flying trapeze, rendered in the fruity unctuous tones which prevailed in the musichalls of the period, would have brought j tears to the eyes of audiences in London, Aldershot, and Portsmouth. I Something nearer to 'life is required nowadays—to life as.it is, and not as it is seen through the bottom of a quart pot. The ballad of the hour has advanced in sincerity, if not in melody. It is plainer, perhaps, but that is all to the good. Haying scraped off the false colours, it will be easier to apply the right tints. Men instinctively reach upwards, not downwards. In a purely physical sense, it is pleasanter and more natural to take something from a shelf that is fairly high up, rather than to stoop to one below.