MIRROR OF LIFE

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 16, 18 July 1940, Page 9

MIRROR OF LIFE

CONTEMPORARY ARTS

THESE DAYS OF

UNREST

INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE

AND MUSIC

"England is today upholding not merely liberty and justice, but culture," said Mr. L. E. Strachan in an address on "The Culture of England," given to the Wellington branch of the Royal Society of St. George last evening.

The culture of any people, of any nation, said the speaker, was largely a reflection of the contemporary life of the people. In times of peace.and prosperity, if the nation were a virile one, culture flourished and there was a rapid and progressive development of the arts. If the nation were decadent, however, this was reflected in its culture. The arts declined .and there, was an unhealthy tone in them. A glance at the history of any of the past would prove. th6 truth of this assertion. Developing this theme only as it applies to England, the speaker traced the history of England from the year 1300, showing its relation to the literature and music of the various ages. The speaker dealt at some length with the Elizabethan era, expressing the opinion that this period marked the zenith of English culture. It was a period which saw/, the foundations laid for our Empire, an age which gave us a literature second to none that has ever existed in the world, and poetry that has not "been, and probably never would be, surpassed; an age when Shakespeare, greatest of all Englishmen, gave the world its greatest dramas —works which had profoundly influenced the jculture not only of England, but of the whole world.

It was not difficult in reviewing the culture of England during the last 500 years to see how composers, poets, and authors had expressed the spirit of their age. The present age, which might be said to have commenced after the Great War, had been a period of fatigue and unrest, combined with a certain mechanical outlook on life, and we did not have to look far to find these conditions mirrored to a large extent in contemporary culture. The last 25 years had been years of bewilderment, and artists in all countries have given proof of that bewilderment; musicians and writers in particular had shown a pessimism that nearly overwhelmed them—the literary man frankly abandoning his art for the glorification of crime and thrills, and the composer despairing of a public that was hypnotised by easy rhythms and the melodies (or the noise) of negroid players. It was sometimes said that every country got the Government it deserved; it might be equally true that every age got the music it deserved. If so it would seem that until we found some means of ending the world unrest, and could,enjoy a more settled condition of existence, we could not look for any great cultural development.

Referring to the place of clean humour in cultural development the speaker said that no other nation had, or could, produce "Punch." No other nation could, in its darkest hour, laugh at its troubles. Our soldiers went up to the front line -singing popular songs, and even when we found it necessary to take the children from their homes we could still laugh . . . and that was one of the cultural rocks of England on which Hitler and his dastardly crew would be wrecked.

Mr. Strachan's address was copiously illustrated;, with excerpts from the music and literature of England since the year 1300.