HYMNS PREFERRED

Feilding Star, Volume 8, Issue 2516, 1 April 1930, Page 7

HYMNS PREFERRED

AMERICANS AND JAZZ OPINIONS OF LISTENERS-IN 111 these days when it is popularly supposed that the United States is the permanent home of jazz, it is refreshing to be told by a member of the Federal Radio Commission, Judg e Robinson, that the radio audience of the United States prefers hymns to 05 per cent, of the music at present being broadcast. That th e good old hymns are winning new friends is the learned Judge’s conviction, based on a wide survey of radio music, raas millions listen-iu to the simple hymns of old. At Easter and Thanksgiving, hymns are popular. Every Sunday, millions demand hymns by radio. “The Last of th e Red-llot Manimaas” has had her admirers, who hav e now cheerfully given way to the yearning for hymns. John Philip Sousa, when asked what h e thought of the judicial pronouncement, remarked that an evening composed of hymns, without tin? relief of stirring band or orchestral music, would b e tiring. Spokesmen of the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Philadalphia Orchestra are inclined to think the Judge has got off ou tli e wrong tack. But Charles Schwab, the steel magnate, says lie has always hymns; a nation that clings to the old-time gospel , tunes must be sound at heart, he says. Meantime, it is noticeable that, east and west,' radio audiences are hearing more hymns and sacred songs than ever before.