Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1947-03-21
Washington lI:23s5y|
Experts Needed to Set
Impartial Budget Figure
BY BAUKHAGE
NetDs Analyst end Commentator.

ID Commentator.
the Opera House in Nuremberg when
German musicians were first per-
mitted to assemble there. The house
had four walls intact and part Of the
roof, but only part Of 1t. The rest
as covered with canvas which kept
out most Of the falling snow but
didn't keep out the cold. No pretense
was made of heating the auditorium,
and the place was freezing cold.
Yet 1t was packed. The program
however could not be completed.
This was not due to the fact that the
audience walked out-they stood or
sat with the snow seeping In on
them. The musicians fingers SIM
ply got too cold to function. That
was year ago last November.
Today with the cooperation Of the
American military government, Or
chestras have sprung up in every
town in the American zone and a
large part of the broadcast pro-
grams are musical.
Reeducating the German in
VIZ A1SAu VI uluSlC Will UC u 1888
Herculean task than It Is In 9TH
er fields, for music has always
been part Of the home training Of
the German child-not merely
something for which the music
teacher was alone responsible.
remember a German home I
used to visit before World War I in
which the short period after the
evening meal and the time the
youngest went to bed and the eldest
went to his other studies was largely
musical hour. The most interest
ed and active member of the group
was the father.
Here in America we leave too
much of the child's musical training
to the schools. As the Hungarian
composer Zoltan Kodaly, who is Wis
iting our country, remarked: "Our
ears must be trained to per-
ceive the simpler musical phenom-
ena before being able to follow the
more complicated forms, and it is
obviously the duty of public schools
to give this first training to every
body"
Germany of course has another
great advantage that America lacks.
Goebbels has been removed. Amer
ica's musical dictator has not. His
organization has a standing reso-
luton which reads: 1.-THE federation
urges its locals to use their political
and economic strength to combat the
encroachment of high school bands
and orchestras.
TIL dictator I refer to is, Of
course, one Petrill0 of the Amer
lean Federation of Musicians;
the resolution is from their con-
stitution which in comforting au-
thOrity on him uses phrases like
this: "It shall be his duty and
prerOgative-tO make decisions
in cases where in his opinion an
ecutive orders which shall be
executive orders which shall be
conclusive and binding upon all
MEMBERSHIP"
Such a resolution and such abso-
lutte authority runs directly counter
to the advice Of Kodaly and to the
thinking of anyone interested in the
cultural development of America or
in democracy itself for that matter.
This is one Of the many facets of
our musical life which touch poll
tics as music touches many of
the nations other activities, past and
present-For example, during the
war cynicism was expressed in
songs like "Lillie Belle with its
Jingle, Jangle-Oh, Amt You Glad
You're Single" There were songs
created out of higher emotional
level, too, like God Bless Amer
ica"; "There'll Always Be an Eng
land"; "The White Cliffs of Dover"
and what was perhaps an escape
song from all the sordidness of war,
"Oh, What Beautiful Morning.
No, the Russians didn't like the
hillbilly American music. And
doubt if the average American could
absorb much of the somber and
mournful Russian folk dirges al
though they contain beauty enough
to the ear accustomed to hearing
them and the mind trained to in
terpret them.
That must be remembered in con-
sidering all cultural relationships to
world peace. We must be informed
not only about the world as a whole,
but specifically about each other.
Mature interpersonal understanding
implies a knowledge of each others
environment and also the habits,
tastes and thinking produced by that
environment. Music is a part of
everyone's life; an expression as
well as an impression. We cannot
live peacefully with each other in
our homes or on the globe without
the establishment of understanding
intercommunication Music, under
stood, will be part of that necessary