Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-10


achieved with the older eStab.
lished methods of contact through
this great country that is the
United States of America in 6
much longer period. After all, We
are only about 800 years old. Ital;
was enjoying Pedestrians music
and the early Cremona violins and
in Germany the Bach family was
creating the musical background
of 400 musical BachS for the ar
rival q few score years later o.
Johann Sebastian when the sea-
sick Pilgrim Fathers Steadied
themselves on Plymouth Rock.
AS a result of modern invention
it would seem that radio might
well serve the general public OF
this country much more practl-
cally than any one other factor in
the matter of spreading real muSi-
cal knowledge, provided it is done
judiciouSly and artiStically. DR..
walter DamroSch is one of the
pioneers in this field. II, is q mat
ter Of no small musical Signifi-
canoe that John Philip Sousa, the
worlds March King" who is an
American by birth, in celebrating
his Seventy-fif birthday last
week, remarked that he has seen
more marvelS in the last Is years
of his life than in the first SO
years.
Nothing astoniSheS me any
more" he is quoted as saying after
having experienced the unusual
phenomenon Of hearing himself
conduct his own band. He is to
repeat this feat over the radio on
THANKSGIVING day. "It is impoS-
Sible," added Mr.. SouSa, ito set
any limit to mechanical ingenuity,
particularly in America"
Behind the part that radio can
take as the vehicle for general
musical education, there are many
other necessary factors. No music
season has seen such widely va
ried efforts, all of them interest
ing, converging to this one great
end.
AS John Erskine, teacher, writer
and musician, remarked in an in
terview recently published:
ut seems to me that we have
magnificent material to work with.
There are miles upon miles of this
country where people get no music
whatever except through phono-
graph records and radio programs
No attempt is made to reach
them. Concert tours are con-
sentative in route, leaving much of
the country unprovided for. There
exists q great music hunger
among us, and any cruditieS OF
taste must be accounted for, not
by natively inferior art-instinct,
but by the fact that America as a
whole mot New York; has heard
very little music.
"There is a problem here that
interests me greatly. The. most
CRYING need at present is not for
more training of virtuosi and not
provision for bringing rising tai
ent before metropolitan audiences
that habitually get the best. The
great need at the moment is to
build up contacts between rising
artists and the country'S legion
of untouched audiences"
TN the National Capital the cur
rent season has been a little
slow in the matter of getting un-
der way for the professional con-
certs, but, on the other hand,
there is a most remarkable in
crease of the organization of vari-
Gus new music groups, meaning
the active participation in muSi-
cal endeavorS of a great many
more people than so engaged in
previous years. There are some
professional musicians who have
expressed fear that the radio was
going to prove detrimental to the
interests of real music. On the
contrary, it seems to be inspiring
more people to want to take part
in musical events and also has
stirred leaders to working out new
and more worthy methods OF
holding the audiences attention
and also of educating that audi
ence to a point where they will
feel it is necessary to see as well
as hear music performed, not be-
cause a famous artist is the per-
former, but because the audience
generally has learned enough
about the production of music as
individuals that they have a fell
low craftSman'S interest the way
music is performed. Any one who
has taken even a few lessons in
china painting, for instance, has
a much keener and more respect
full interest in every piece OF
painted china that he or she sees
later. So it is with music. Last
week Vladimir Horowitz received
no praise that was so complete as
that given him by practlcally
every pianist who was in that
audience and whose opinions were
later expressed elsewhere.
There is really amazing IN
crease in the number OF choral
groups in Washington. Within
the past week five brand-nev
groups have announced that they
are meeting weekly for rehearsals
and planning ambitious programs
of real musical value. Some are
small and some are large. Prob
ably some of them will overlap :
little on the membership OF other
established choral groups. How
ever, there will necessarily have tt
be a considerable new grout
to fill all these organizations ant
make it possible to materializt
their plans.
Four of these groups are an
nounced elsewhere on the page to-
day for the first time. They are
the Soloists' Ensemble. directed By
Otto Simon. who won Specta
notice for his motel group som'
seasons ago; Capital City Choris