AMERICAN ARTISTES VISIT GERMANY

Grey River Argus, 28 October 1948, Page 9

AMERICAN ARTISTES VISIT GERMANY

(From Jack Smyth, Reuter’s Correspondent). BERLIN, By Airmail.

Autstanding American musical artists are to-day making a valuable vontribution to German understanding of American culture. The United States sponsored “visiting artist programme’’ which already has brought among others, Patricia Travers, 20-year-old violinist, Tom Scott, folksong singer, and Ralph Kirkpatrick, harpsichordist, to Germany,, has come in for a good deal of criticism. The average German in 1932 considered that America’s . contributions to world culture comprised bathtubs, Sinclair Lewis, mass production, Shirley Temple and jazz. But, after the Hitler-Goebbels’ propaganda machine had been working at full pressure, the average German’s estimate of American culture was degenerated art and Hollywood trash. At the same time the Nazi attitude towards Germa nculture had become notoriously self-centred and arrogant. Nourished by this over-nationalistic regime in the conceit that good music and good musicians weer to be found only in Germany, the people became especially sceptical about the musical works and performing musicians of other countries—but especialy those of the United States. Since the end of the war, however, the German man-in-the-street through the media of newspapers, books periodicals, radio, films, theatre and music, has been given a broader picture of the rest of the world. Particular stress has been laid on the eld of music, and the published compositions of many Americans, in both sheet, and record form, have been placed in the Inter-Allied Lending Library in Berlin, and in many of the United States information centres throughout the American occupied zone.

Much of this music has been performed by German orchestras and chamber groups in concerts and on the radio, lectures on the subject have also been given to German groups and articles have been published in magazines and newspapers. But these projects, although highly successful in acquainting the Germans with American musical life, needed to be supplemented by opportunities to see and hear performances by American musicians. Tours were, therefore, arranged. Plans for the visiting artist programme were begun by the American Military Government’4 Theatre and Music Section of the Information Control Division in 1946. But their realisation had to be delayed for lack of funds. The Military Government agreed to provide housing and transport for the artists after they reached Germany. But there was no Government appropriation to pay for their travelling expenses to and from Europe nor for their food and incidental expenses while in Germany. Weanwhile, the other Allied nations were capitalising on the importance of. sending reprsntative artists to Germany. Russian musicians choirs and dancers performed in Berlin on many occasions. The British sent over several leading artists and a theatrical company, and the French allocated funds for the purpose of enabling musicians, dangers and dramatic companies to perform in the French occupied zone.

Only gradually did the United States authorities realise that there was a wealth of outstanding cultural material in Aermica which was little known in Europe, especially in Germany, and deserving of promotion. Then, in January this year, the New York office of the Civil Affairs Division, Department of the Army, took steps to raise sufficient money from private sources to finance the journeys of at least three artists. A panel of well-known musicians and critics was appointed to select suitable artists and to negotiate with them. In all cases, the individual artistes would receive no reward for their services other than their expenses. The net surplus in German marks from each tour would then be turned over to a German charity, and the net dollar income from the sale of tickets to American would be returned to the original expense fund to make it as nearly self-supporting as possible. The geenrosity of the participating artistes represented a real financial sacrifice. Unfortunately, the- dollar income of the concerts has been relatively small and unless more contributions can be secured it may not be possible to continue the programme during the autumn. But negotiations which enabled the American artistes to perform in the French, rßitish and Soviet zones —of particular signicance was Mr Kirkpatrick’s appearance in Leipzig in the Soviet zone—have been an added feature of this cultural exchange scheme for music. In the words of John Evarts, Music Officer for the American Military Government’s Education and Cultural Relations Division: “As a non-politi-cal field of expression,, it has been a vast area of agreement, co-operation and communication.’’