Hungry Horse news and Columbian. [volume] (Columbia Falls, Mont.) 1946-1948, 1947-03-14
Washington Digest
Experts Needed to Set
Impartial Budget Figure
By BAUKHAGE
News AnaIyst and Commentator.

OhdAOE
and Commentator.
;, the Opera House in Nuremberg whe
German musicians were first pc.
. mitted to assemble there. The hous
I had four walls intact and part OF tn
roof. but only part of it. The re:
I as covered with canvas which keI
out most OF the falling snow bt
didn't keep out the cold. No protens
was made of heating the auditorium
and the place was freezing colo
Yet it was packed. The program
however could not be completed
This was not due to the fact that tn
audience walked out-they stood o
sat with the snow seeping in o.
them. The musicians fingers sim
ply got too cold to function. Tha
was a year ago last November.
Today with the cooperation OF thu
American military government, or
chestras have sprung up in ever.
town in the American zone and
large part of the broadcast pro
grams are musical.
Reeducating the German in
the field of music will be less
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.
l 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
a 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 this 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."
The dictator / refer to is, of
course, one Petrillo 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
emergency exists; to issue ex-
ecutive orders which shall be
conclusive and binding upon all
MEMBERSHIP"
Such 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
example, during the
war cynicism was expressed in
songs like Lille Belle" with it's 1
Jingle, Jangle-Oh, Amt You Glad 1
You're Single" There we're songs
created out of a higher emotional
evel, too, like God Bless Amer. r
ca; "There'll Always Be an Eng
and; 1.-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
llllbilly American music. And I
loubt If the average American could
bsorb much of the somber and :
nournful Russian folk dirges al
hough they contain beauty enough
0 the ear accustomed to hearing t
hem and the mind trained to in :
arpret them. C
mat must be remembered in con- :
lderlng all cultural relationships tn +
'orld peace. We must be informed
OF only about the world as whole.
ut specifically about each other
lature lnterpersonal understanding
nplles a knowledge of each others
nvironment and also the habits
'stes and thinking produced by that
nvlronment. Music is a part of :
Veryone's life; an expression as
ell as an impression. We cannot
We peacefully with each other in
If homes or on the globe without re
le establishment of understanding "A
accommodation. Music, under. tt
ood, Will be part of that necessary -
accommodation. =