Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-08-09
MUSIC FOR THE
MILLIONS IS AIM
OF OXFORD HEAD
DR.. Allen Promises to Take
Hold of Art by New
Handles


ance OF the new professor of music
at Oxford has been on the humble
subject OF barrel-organs and kindred
matters-on music as il reaches the
unlettered and impecunious. II is
perhaps an omen. Whatever else
DR.. Allen does with his professor
ship the Times is sure he will take
hold OF music by new handles, and
that he will say things that want
saying, as those can who make
friends everywhere. What wanted
saying just then was that it is of
little use to expect much improve
ment in musical education until
you have purged and elevated the
music which is dinned all day and
every night into peoples ears.
1t begins with the home sur
roundinsS-the absence of any idea
that music can be real part OF
life, the limited opportunities of
making il. the notion OF a tune that
is implied in the fact that il is
whistled not for itself but as way
of being up 10 date, or sung as an
excuse for saying words that are silly
or risky and the imposSihility of
escape from these noises. The mis-
chief begins there. but reforms must
begin not with those who are, but
who will one day be, parents, with
the places where tunes are manu-
factured wholesale, not dispensed
retail.
y beginning has been made in the
schools. There are less OF the in
/ s-sar- r.aNR 10
children and more of the tunes that
have survived the test Of time.
Might not this be carried further.
each new song be printed on 4 card
and child be allowed 10 take home
with him the one he liked as soon
as he could sing il correctly? This
would make him happy and his par
entS proud, and inCidently disSem-
mate the riEht kind of song. What
/ is wanted is rhythmical tunes and
Self-dependence. We heard Z score
OF boy uddlers the other day at
Stratford; if their tune had had
more swing in il. and If instead OF
being conducted by their teacher.
after she had first tuned their fid-
dies for them, they had tuned their
own and the best of them had Just
stepped out and conducted the rest
- PIE N4AS result Suou as II
was, would have been still more
Public Performances
However. il is from public per-
formanCes that we get most of our
ideas Of music. Such institutions
as South Place. the Alexandra Pal
ace, and the Peoples Palace. some
OF the restaurants and tea shops,
and the county council bands do
excellent work. but cover limited
areas. The sounds that reach the
majority Of those who might be
muSic-loverS, but are at present only
bad critics. come from theaters,
Cinemas, gramophones. and street
organs. Too much of this music is
trash, though not quite such trash
as it once &as. The music-halls
have in the last few years included
pieces OF rational music finely per-
formed. while the street-organs. at
any rate the westerly ones, have
Improved their harmonies, though
not their raucous voices, out OF all
recognition: at a cinema the other
day we heard n really excellent
pianist. and some Jheaters have at
last supplied their orchestra with
sufficient bass.
II is in these directions that DR..
Allen hopes for further progress.
He would enlist the sympathies of
managers and manufacturers and
get them TO agree that a good tune
really pays better than a bad one.
We believe that musical philan-
thropists could hardly ind a more
useful piece Of work than to visit
the cinemas and see what the prob
lem was, the organ factory and see
what the conditions were. the East
end and see what live children really
danced TO. and then set TO work and
make a list of suitable pieces in
accessible arrangements to enable
these purveyors OF sound to become
patrons Of art. This is a thing the
purveyors have neither the time nor
the knowledge TO do for themselves,
and for which they would be CRATE
full.
The things TO get rid of are not the
racy music-hall songs, which often
say a poiHted thing in a quick way.
but the stale Rigoletto. the senti-
mental Cavalleria, and the sickly
Balfe; and the things 10 substitute
for these are the tunes of which il
can be truly felt that still they are
carolled and said-on wings they are
carried-after the singer is dead and
the maker buried" The truth about
il has never been better put than in
that letter we have lately been read
ing from a colonel of a battalion IA
nous for its marching qualities. who
said he knew nothing about music
(Which was not wholly true), but
knew something of men (as the
sequel showed. He paraded the
'noisest" men in each platoon and
forced chanties down their throats.
10 their infinite content. as soon as
they found that I only censored
the tune, not the words" What ne
was on the lookout for was any
thing with good beat in it. old or
new" and what worked best" were
tunes from a morris-dancer's book
The men simply love them for some
reason or other" Exactly and il
IS up 10 the philanthropists who
know the reason to find the tunes
and place them where they are want
ed.
Douu.cIvo-.. D.