Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-07-25
Concerning Popular Music
And Out-of-Door Concerts


WHAT is popular" music, anyway:
This much debated question
bring fresh answers every day. and
the wide difference OF opinion ex'
pressed in various quarters indicates
that 1t is in no fair way OF being set
tied any time soon,
In one city, or one section of the
country. popular music seems to
mean one thing, while in other places
1t means something entirely different
For example, 1t Is said that popular
concerts in Boston include Beetho'
ven and Brahms, while in Sioux City
or ,Tulsa. they are more likely to be
taken up chiefly with the compositions
of Bershwin and Irving Berlin. OF
course, this doesn't mean a great deal
because Boston is famous for that
which other cities have not.
According to Albert Spalding the
average layman Is frightened away
from so.called classical" programs
because he thinks they are high
brow" and ''too deep" to be readily
understood. This average laymarl, he
contends, wants" something that re.
duires no effort to listen to and no
effort to comprehension other words,
iazz and the ephemera1 love songs that
pass in the night. Mr.. Spading OBJ
iects to this state OF mind, declaring
that many so.called classics require no
more effort TO appreciate than the
stuff that Is served out in night clubs.
The really popular music. he claims.
il the music that has come down to
us through the ages, that has been
tested by generations and found
worth OF recognition: in short. the
music that is generally called high.
brow" He infers that much OF the
reason for the failure of the average
person to appreciate this music lies
i'm his timidity--his fear of Ii as Some
thing that 1t would not be quite manly
to like.
THERE Is doubtless a great deal in
this. II this much discussed aver
age man were forced to listen to clas-
steal music as much as he has to lis
ten to jazz he would probably like 1t
in self.defense if for no other reason.
Jazz Is inescapable. 1t Is whistled all
oyel. the streets. in corridors OF Of
flee buildings and at night by lovelorn
SWANS. 1t is played on countless
radios and monographs in innumer-
able eating places, shoe shine parlors
and barber shops. II resounds through.
out night clubs and dance halls ana
the bathrooms of country clubs. IL Is
everywhere. After hearing a. tune SO
many thousand times one can hardly
be blamed IL one attempts an expert
mental whistle In fit of desperation
or absent .mindedness And after that
comes the business OF really liking
the thing.
If all the jazz in the country were
suppressed for a month and all the
whistlers, victrola players ana radio
fans had to take classical music or
nothing, the chances are that 1t would
be on the road 10 popularity In no
time. tits that superstition, that fear
Of the "high.brow." that has mace
this jazz-loving Nation.
Paul Whiteman, that monarch OF
tazz. has proved this. Several years
ago he selected a--to the average man
practically unknown little tune,
Rimsky. Korsakow's "Chanson In
doue," and popped it up bit and then
made a. record of it under the tile OF
"Song of India" The country went
mad over It.. 1t outdid the widest
Jazz Of the day In popularity En-
couraged by this success Mr.. White
man continued along the same line.
making records of the Meditation"
from '"rhais." Rimsky's Hymn to the
sun" and several others. The same
thing was done by other orchestra
leaders, with the result that the aver
age mans whistling vocabulary was
enlarged by some two dozen tunes
that formerly had been tucked away
in the pigeonhole labeled "high.brow
stuff"
THIS. however. is going to an ex-
l. IRENE in, what one regards as
uopular music RELOCATING jazz to
musical inferno. interested persons
want to know what sort OF classical
music is most popular with the aver
age audience. This question receives
more than usual attention at this time
Of the year because this Is the season
Of the outdoor performances, the band
concert, the open air ope s.;ss an nii s oysr