WIRELESS AND MUSIC

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 November 1934, Page 12

WIRELESS AND MUSIC

SIR T. BEECHAM’S PROPHECY. Sir Thomas Beecham, speaking at the Leeds Luncheon Club, complained of what he described as the “monstrous mononoply of the air” created by the last Conservative Government. He declared that it was “infinitely more dangerous than the aeroplane menace.” After remarking that he wished to make it clear that he said nothing against the British Broadcasting Corporation, Sir Thomas said the monopoly given by charter to the 8.8. C. by the Conservative Government was the most unheard-of thing that had happened in the world and not one single sensible argument was advanced against it. He had found ■ that the average member of Parliament, who was more completely out of touch with life generally than any other specimen of the human race, looked upon the 8.8. C. as a medium by which he could deliver his views over the air on any such subject as he became acquainted with. That delusion was shared by all sorts of people. The 8.8. C. was really a vast entertainment bureau, and it was not only operating free of income-tax, but was given by the State 6/- from each license for carrying on z its entertainment.

The inevitable result of creating a monopoly, if it were continued, was

that in 20 years’ time not a single musical institution in this country would exist, except, perhaps, for some society providing music in a cellar in London. All would be dependent upon the mechanical radio, and would get their music second hand or third hand, and gradually the race of artists and conductors would die away. That, surely, was the apex of English imbecility. Whereas the State was helping the 8.8. C., it was killing true music by insisting on the imposition of the entertainments tax. OTHER OPINIONS. Dame Ethel Smyth, the composer, gave whole-hearted support to Sir Thomas. “I agree with every word he said, and I am glad he said it,” she declared. No less emphatic was Mr Harold Holt, the impressario. “The point is this,” he. said. “So long as you are able to produce concert work by mechanical devices and supply it to the public at 10/- a year, you will educate the nation’s ears to the mechanical sound, and, in course of time, it may even become more acceptable to the listener than the genuine article would be.

“The great funds at the disposal of the 8.8. C. enable the Corporation to fight private enterprise—in fact, anything in the nature of private enterprise is being ousted. Hundreds of musical societies throughout the country are going out of existence.” Mr L. G. Sharpe, the concert agent,

also expressed agreement with Sir Thomas. Broadcasting, he said, was killing the concert business altogether, and it was detrimental* to music. Subscriptions to concerts during the last two or three seasons had steadily gone down. “People will not come to concerts now,” he added, “They prefer to sit at home in an armchair and listen in to is called music,” Miss Lilian Baylis, o‘f the “Did Vic,” expressed a different view. “I feel that wireless has been a great boon and blessing to everyone,” she said. “Only recently I had a letter from a woman living in a lonely part of Wales, whose only opportunity of listening to good music is through the wireless programmes. She tells me that her wireless set has been a great blessing to her. “It strikes me that if people develop a taste for music by hearing it on the wireless they will be stimulated to see the performers in the flesh. My own experience is that people who have heard opera only from the ether desirg to see their favourite singer on the stage. I think wireless is leading to a better appreciation of music.”