Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-09-21
MARINE BAND
CONCERT TREAT
Greatest Musical Feature of
Kind to Give Free Show
Here on Sept. 81

Half a hundred men will face the
audience at City Hall Park, this
city on Wednesday, Sept. 81. They
are men of the Marine Corps. How
ever. Capt. William II. Santelmann,
their commanding officer, il a musi-
ciah and not a warrior. The tour
on which the U. s. Marine Band IS
now engaged is under the direction
OF the Radcliffe Enterprises, which
have succeeded in combining eduea-
ticnal interest with popular appeal
in an extraordinary degree. The
sband will play selections illustrating
Iall types of music from folk songs
to grand opera and its programs are
especially interesting in the ma
terial which shows the attachments
OF this country in musical express
sion.
America hasfalways been a mGsi-
cal nation. 1t has been lavish in
Its rewards to singers, princely for
tunes having been spent in pecu-
MARY compensations for what was
really best or most pleasing. 1t has
only recently realized that 1t has
Music of the highest quality within
Its own boundaries, and the foreign
trademark is no longer necessary.
Its great creative genius hitherto
expending itself upon marvellous me-
chanisms and colossal structures,
both architectural and commercial,
has been asserting itself in music
since the var with more indepen-
dencs and vigor that promise great
influence upon the art of the fu-
ture. The contact with foreign
thought and social systems necessi-
lated by the war called attention to
the fact that human beings have
gifts and tastes in common regard
less of habitat or language. The SOL
diers desired music. They not only
desired 1t but they demanded it and
the effort to supply it aroused an
Interest which cannot fail to bring
Improvement in quality as well as
greater abundance in production. The
Marine Band has long made a study
Of music which could be made salts
tying to the popular ear without un-
due sacrifice of legitimate standards.
Its, concert here will be an example
pi the standard that its leader, Will
am II. Santelmann, is seeking TO
yet for American music at the pres
snt time.
! The United States Marine Band,
for whose appearance in this city
arrangements have been completed,
has been mistakenly compared to
some of the subsidized musical or
dramatic organizations for which
European cities are famous While
Its men are well compensated from
the government treasury and are Sc
cure in their positions, they do not
constitute a subsidized assemblage
Of talent in the European sense. The
band is part Of the Marina Corps, a
we'll defined element of the military
system with its duties and RESPONSE
bilities clearly indicated apart from
any appeal to popular audiences.
Concert tours, such as have been
provided for through a number of
years under the direction of w. L..
Radcliffe, are exceptional incidents
and are made possible only by spe-
cial leave of absence. Appearances
before the public through the coun-
try are matters of pleasure, but not
of duty as specifically provided for
in, the establishment Of the band.
Subsidized institutions of the tradi-
tional description have a peculiar
difficulty to encounter. Membership
in them is often obtained by political
or social influence and discipline is
rendered difficult because of eonsid-
erations which may arise quite
apart from those of individual COM
petence. The subsidized theatres 'of
Europe have been most remarkable
in the assurance that they gave Of
opportunity to see or hear standard
productions regardless of light and
ephemeral vogue. The subsidized
institutions have been of vast benefit
to individual artists from time to
time in the matter of reclame, but in
the element of substantial and per-
manent appeal to a genuinely popu-
lar sentiment they have never COM
5pletely fulfilled the hopes Of their
founders.