The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-08-20
Today's guest column is writer by Phil Spitalny:
 THERE'S NOTHING WRONG
 WITH TIN PAN ALLEY
PHIL SPITALNY

by
 PHIL SPITALNY | Maestro of Hour of Charm. )
 Don't be in such a hurry to apologize for today's composers of popular music Even when you compare them with the old masters, our present-day song writers don't have to take any back seats.
 Sure, they turn out lot of the June, moon and croon" stuff but you can be sure they wouldn t beturning it out if there weren't a market for it. And I'll agree that the classicists wrote but it's a pretty safe bet that If Bach and Haydn were alive today, they'd be turning out the romantic dance tunes too.
 The main trouble is that our con- temporary composers have been | judged by the same standards that are applied to the works of Bee thoven and Brahms. That is about as fair as judging the works of a modern playwright according to ! ShakeSpearean standards. The medium has changed, the compos- CTS have changed with it, but un- fortunately, the standards of judg- ment, in music, haven't.
 Music, in the days of the great masters, sprang from the church, and practically all early music had certain degree of solemnity about it. Later, the opera came into prominence, but again, seriousness was the keynote of most of the | major works A composer might write successful comic operas after he had established himself by the success of his tragedies, but few regulations were built on comic op- l eraS.
 Composers, then as now, had to write music for which there was market, if they were to make q living at it. That involved Shap- ing the music to fit the demands of the public. In those days, the church and the opera were the prin- cipal markets, and their needs were for compositions of an impressive, serious nature.
 Wealthy individuals, frequently commissioner musical works, and in those cases, of course, the nature of the work varied with the nature of the commissioner. In general, though, the musical picture was pretty much on the solemn side.
 Today, the situation has some close to complete reversal. The main markets are the theater, the radio and motion pictures, and the idiom is easy, free-flowing, the general air carefree. It is more likely to be the serious work that is commissioned.
 With that basic difference in the situations of the composer then and the composer now, it is easy enough to see that a direct com parison of the works of Beethoven and Gershwin is not fair to either of therc.
 If anything, modern composers have the better of tle bargain, hav- ing the benefit of the pioneering done by the early masters, and by the other great composers who fol- lowed them. AS concrete eX- ample, Prokofieff, in his Classical Symphony" has demonstrated brilliantly that modern can write successfully in the style of Mozart and Haydn. A reversal of that situation, when Mozart or Haydn writing in the style of Prowofieff, is unthinkable, for the simple req son that the early composers just didn't have the fully developed mu- sical technique available to present. day musicians.
 Putting 1t on the only fair basis on which judgment can be made, modern who writes outstandingly m the current style for the present. day public's demands is the equal Of an old master who composed ex- ceptionally well in the idiom of his day.
 James Melton. Metropolitan Opera tenor, and Alec Templeton, piano virtuoso, have joined the list of more than 50 artists who are aiding Donald Voorhees, In prepar- ing an Armistice program of thankSglVlng music.
 Voorhees,, who conducts the Bell Symphonic Orchestra on the Tele- phone Hour Monday nights at 800 D. m. EWT on NIIC. is most en- thusiastic over support given his idea. The idea grew from con- yersation Voorhees, was having with some friends several weeks ago.
 They were mcsing over the event ual victory of the Allies over the Axis and Voorhees, said, Suppose the armistice became reality on Monday night. I'd want to change the orchestral part of the program and conduct 'The Battle Hymn Of the Republic" and I'm sure the ar list on the show that night would have a special number he or she would want to include" The idea grew and since that dis cussion, selections have come in from such artists as Lily Pons. Grace Moore. Jascha Heifetz, Mar ian Anderson and Jose Iturbi.
 James Melton has chosen five numbers lin fact, an entire Tele- phone Hour program. He wants the chorus and the orchestra to open the program with the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's The Messiah Then he would like to sing Godfrey OHara's There Is No Death An American march medley by the or chestra would follow, then the ex- a,iisitcly lovely The Lords Prayer" bv Maiotte to be sung by Melton.