Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-07
"Graharn

~ VERY time Marion Talley comes
- out Of her Kansas retreat to
make photograph records the
~ papers are full again of her
refusals to continue her musical
career In any other manner. And she'll
drop that, she says, when the contract
for records is over.
Miss TaIey is reported to have re-
fused large sums Of money to broad
cast, and happen to know that these
reports are true. One of her refusals
was for more than $12, 900 for a single
broadcast. She turned 1t down so fiat
you'd have thought the offer of that
amount OF money was an insult.
The broadcasters have just about
given up hopes of ever getting Miss
Talley on the air, and in the studios
there Is considerable mourning about it.
With good reason, too, for with her
voice and her temperament she ought
to be ideal before the microphone.
Miss Talley as most Of you know,
probably is the most inperturbable
young lady who ever trod an opera
stage. She never made a display of
she went too far toward the other
extreme. This GOODNESS would have
been no handicap on the air. Her i'm
mobility would have cast no pail of cold
water on the performance, but the clear
carefully controlled voice could have
been handled in such a manner as to
make the very most of 1t.
Kreisler is still a hold-out, and there
isn't much indication as to whether he
will ever go before the mike or not.
Heifetz might, I understand, and 1t
seems to be generally believed that he
just hasn't got around to it yet. I do
not understand that he has any aver
sion to broadcasting. Paderewski who
has broadcast IN Europe, is being
coaxed, and is toying with the idea of
accepting an offer, so some hot rumors
have it. However, the date, If any,
isn't likely to be before some time next
year.
All of which means. provided the
Wind-driven straws mean anything,
that the last notable hold-outs from
broadcasting are wavering. When they
capitulate listeners will have had
chance to sample all of the very best
the musical world has to offer.
IF B. A. ROLFE ever gets his way,
Americans will hear all the music
written by their ellow-countrymen
i until they know 1t by heart. The
good music, that is. Rolfe is as
willing as anybody to admit that Amer
leans have turned out as much music
that might better be forgotten as any
one else.
But after all, he says, there's mighty
little really worthwhile music that is
purely American, and he thinks some
thing ought to be done about it. Rolfe's
not so sure that the best American"
music wasn't written by a foreigner,
Dvorak. The largo movement (Goin'
Home) from the symphony From the
New World" is Rolfe's idea of about
the best that's come along.
Italy, France and Germany have their
own well developed national music
largely because natives Of those coun-
tries have been familiar with good
music deriving from the native soil all
their lives, Rolfe believes.
To make the same thing come true
In this country requires first of all a
sort of codification, we'll demonstrated,
of what we already have in native
music, as Rolfe sees it, and he'd like to
take up the job 1t would require an
orchestra of symphonic proportions, and
so far as the form Of composition goes,
no holds would be barred 1t would
play the best Of every form OF American
music from theme songs to symphonies.
Rolfe is, of course, best known as
the leader of dance orchestras, but he
yearns, as he puts 1T, to speak In more
than one idiom. And If he ever gets
that big orchestra which is to play
nothing but American music, he feels
sure there won't be any lack of music
for it to play. American composers
have already turned out q great deal
| of worth while stuff built on negro ant
/ Indian themes, and with such an Or
chestra waiting TO present their newest
works, Rolfe thinks they'll get to work
and turn out some more. Besides, he
says, there are lot of men working on
pot-boilers who would like to try their
| hand at more serious works, II there
were any chance to get them presented
And of course, he believes that the
American music should be presented
primarily on the air, so that every one
could hear great deal Of 1t. don't
agree with him that there isn't any