ON THE AIR

NZ Truth, Issue 1152, 29 December 1927, Page 4

ON THE AIR

Highbrow Music For The Masses

Radio has taken a definite place in the life of the community. . Permanent good can be achieved by its means m the moulding and education of the people in the higher flights of music. BUT not by any stretch of the imagination can it be said that New Zealanders are particular lovers of classical music.

Industrial competition and the daily struggle for existence leaves Mr. Householder with jaded nerves, and if he scrapes up the necessary cash to pay for a license fee and instals a crystal or valve radio receiving set, he does not find solace in a, continuous and monotonous recital of Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin and their brothers. A little of this "classical" music goes a long way, but it won't satisfy Timothy Tiredout and his youngsters. They want something bright, something humorous, a march or two to stir the sluggish blood and but a very meagre helping of "preludes" and "schertzos" that contain no musical rhythm. .. „. * If Timothy , has a partiality for sandwiches, he doesn't always like cheese in them! • And so it is with the alleged "concerts" put over the air by the New Zealand Broadcasting Company.

Licenses are held mostly by the man _and child— who doesn't know a note of music, classical music, and, what is more, doesn't care a rap for it

If, when it comes time for new licenses to be issued in March, an appreciable drop is noticed in the number taken OUt, the Broadcasting Co. has only itself to blame. The main endeavor of the concert directors, it would seem, is to everlastingly jamb "highbrow" selections and organ recitals into the ears of an unappreciative listening: audience. If the company wants to inculcate into the proletariat a desire for better music, it -should take the task a little more seriously— and slowly-otherwise, like the cat that choked itself with cream, it is liable to become non est.