Evening star., 1960-01-10
BY DAY THORPE
Star Music Critic

Howard Taubman, music
editor of the New York Times,
is the latest investigator of
our local culture. Two weeks
ago he posed but did not at
tempt to answer the question
of whether or not Washing
ton can be called a cultural
community. He found US
neither Philistines nor yet
Athenians, and while some
Washingtonians are incensed
that he does not hold us to
be the Towering of the West,
others, who feel that ridicule
Of the present is the only
hope for the future, resent
Mr.. Taubman's careful re-
fusal to dub us quite un-
cultured.
Whatever our state of cul-
ture today, we are certainly
culture-conscious as a re-
suit Of the campaign for the
National Cultural Center.
What came first, a longing
for culture or the proposal
for the Center If the latter,
civic gratitude is due those
statesmen in the Capitol
who have so successfully
created a plot of land, a set
Of plans, and widespread en-
thusiasm for the most neb-
ulous idea of the age.
From Whence Culture?
But is culture pictures and
symphonies and dances and
operas and books? Is not
our present highly developed
culture just as valid and as
commendable-the culture of
politics, the science of who's
in and who's out? And if
we want a further culture
must it not be based on two
things - an enjoyment of
what superior people have
done and are doing, and a
desire to do something our
selves? The Cultural Center
is as anticultural an influence
as new equestrian statues
or department store Christ
mas carols as long as the
building itself obliterates
consideration Of how it may
be used.
Perhaps the strongest and
most vital product of the
cultural impulse today is the
motion picture-a genuine art
for which there is a genuine
audience. 1t is an art that
differs in kind. today, from
music or the other more ESQ.,
teric arts in that while it
may need advertising it needs
no propagandfzing - every
body wants to buy it, like
beer or a 1860 automobile.
Music, for example, I doubt
can ever become a major
cultural force in Washington,
Cultural Center or not, until
there is a large body of
Washingtonians for whom
music is an all-consuming
and all-firing business Of
life.
There is much good music
in Washington and there are
many fine musicians, but here
there is no genuine, ener-
getic musical life-the life
OF singers, and cellists, and
composers and teachers-the
way there is in New York.
/ think the difference is not
so much a matter of guam
tity as Of the quality of the
endeavor. Of the interest.
Wrestling With Problems
II this is so. I suggest a new
and modestly subsidiary func-
ton for the Cultural Center,
a function that would be
truly national and might do
something to create the only
atmosphere in Washington in
which the Center, when it is
finished. will find itself any,
thing more than an enor-
nous piece of architecture,
the right bank counterpart of
the left bank Marriott Motor
Court.
I am aware that those di-
recting the destiny of the
Cultural Center are not at
the moment in great need Of
any new ideas. for they al
ready have problems enough.
They are deciding in what
basic way the center will op-
erate-will it be a producing
agency, creating its own
plays. operas, symphonies
and other entertainments of
a cultural nature, or like
Constitution Hall or the Ma
tional Theater will it be a
booking agency ready to rent
ifC NaatliktAa g.