Evening star., 1946-04-05
This and That
By Charles E. TraceweH.


A reader wants to know if people
whistle as much as they used to do.
He thinks they don't, and he wants to
know why.
Well, what is there to whistle about
any more?
The world is waiting to be blown up.
Surely, there is not much to be cheer
full about in that
Whistling, as in the old days, came
from honest good cheer, from happy
living, from belief that God was in
His heaven, and all was right with the
world
But there are other reasons too, one
may believe, why whistlin' as you 60 is
not common these days.
One is the omnipresence of music
We literally have music in the air"
these days. There are millions of radios
and thousands of monographs.
X X
There are great orchestras in most
of our larger cities, and there are thou
sands of smaller musical groups, in
cluding dance bands, Western, Hawaiian,
Latin American, hillbilly, and so on.
There actually Is no need for so much
whistling now. In the good old days
and they really were good-ordinary
average people had little music in their
lives
In what were fondly called better
homes, small groups gathered around
piano, but not one person in many thou
sands had ever heard a symphony
orchestra
Unless they lived in the largest cities,
music lovers had not heard the great
artists. All this meant that the music
of the master composers was largely
unknown.
1t also meant that if one was musical,
and wanted music, he made it for him
self.
1t was largely an unsophisticated era.
No one looked askant at whistlers, in
the large. They were regarded as part
of the scene, especially of the rural
scene.
All these matters are changed today.
Whistling is looked upon as "countri-
fed" in cities.
Many persons have worked up an un-
reasoning hatred of whistling.
In some establishments, key men are
quick to "bawl out" whistlers, young or
old, but especially junior whistlers.
Dignity has come to the fore, and
it must be admitted that there is moth
ing very dignified about whistling. 1t
is necessary to pucker up the lips, and
the ensuing sounds as often as not might
be regarded as highly undignified.
The truth is that not many persons
were good whistlers, even in the hey
day of the art. The whistler, of all
artists, should possess sense of abso-
lutte pitch.
Too many whistlers were off-key.
And far too many, alas, were unable
to carry tune.
OF all the whistlers one still hears,
how many really know the tune they are
trying to give out?
Perhaps whistling would not have
fallen from its high estate if all per-
formers could have carried a tune as
we'll as Bing.
The result is that few persons whistle
any more. Postmen seem to specialize
in it, and some of them rather creditably
We have one out our way who goes
in for opera as he works. His favorite
is the famous seXtet from Lucia di
Lammermoor." He does a good job with
it, too. 1t is interesting to feel that the
latest mail is marching down the street
to good old tune. Thus the brimming
present and the disappearing past are
tied together for a few minutes
Whistling is not easy 1t never was.
1t may be that with the general spread
of higher musical standards most per-
sons willing to whistle rather hesitate
to do it. You see, they may just have
been playing a Beethoven symphony
on the phonosraph.