BROADCAST MUSIC

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 19 August 1933, Page 12

BROADCAST MUSIC

STRONG CRITICISM EXPRESSED JAZZ AND CROONING fßy Telegraph—Press Association) WELLINGTON, 17th August. Pointed comments on the art of radio listening and the general policy of broadcasting stations were made by Dr Cyril Jenkins, one of the judges at the forthcoming Wellington competitions festival, who arrived to-day from England. In his opinion, broadcasting in general was not educating people musically, hut was presenting listeners with too much of what could he classed as had art.

“Unfortunately during my travels,” r said Dr Jenkins, “I found the standard ■of singing deplorably low. I have 3 heard some excellent voices; hut the performers lacked style. Style is a 1 : matter of of detail. The j best-dressed woman, like the best singer, is not the loudest. If had soloists ' are allowed to broadcast, they are more than a mere nuisance—-they constitute : a menace to art, because they have the approval of the executives of the ■ broadcasting stations, the public accepts them as models, and as a result ! the general taste of listeners falls. L j “It is difficult to conceive that an adminstration of experienced musicians could perpetrate some of the anomalies that seem to he well established in some young countries. The majority of .programmes in these days seem to be made up of jazz guying of the classics, detestable croonlings, and other vulgarities, therefore it is impossible to conceive that much (progress will he made educationally with this wonderful new and sensitive medium of giving music to the public.”