Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-04-07

hour documentary, In the
Mouth of the Wolf" all
about grand opera in Patma,
coming up "wednesday,
7:30-8:30 pm, WTOP-Tv,
Channel 81.
This might be a good time
to air a few ideas about the
problems Of music and TV,
which are by no means simple
ones.
One could begin by point
ing out that, according to q
Fortune Magazine survey,
the American public spends
some 500 million annually
to buy records of serious
music, as well as $500 million
for high-fidelity equipment
on which to play them. On
the other hand, the Depart
Tnent of Commerce tells us
that only $3.50 million a year
is spent on admissions to all
spectator sports - and that
includes baseball, football,
basketball, boxing, and horse
racing, among others.
With $40O million spent on
records against $3.50 million
spent on sports, why are
sports telecasts so much
better, from technical and
professional viewpoint, than
most telecasts Of serious
music?
A Technical Problem
OF course, there are rea-
sons for this. and they are
good ones. A sporting event
Is easier to televise than
serious music, and much re-
search has gone into the de-
velopment of expert tech
niQues for doing so. On the
other hand. presenting seri-
Gus music on television is q
problem that has never been
adequately solved.
The fitting camera"
technique, in which the
camera roams from conduc-
tor to timpani to harp to
audience and back to con-
ductor, is basically distract
ing and focuses attention on
nonmusical aspects of the
program.
The attempt to approx
mate on the TV screen the
appearance and the atmos-
phere Of the recital hall or
the operate stage is singu-
larry unimaginative and fun
damentally illogical; to cover
an opera or a recital as If 1t
were a ball game adds moth
ing much to the music and
may. in some instances, de-
tract from It.
Furthermore, there Is al
ways the sticky question Of
the quality of TV sound
transmission and the stickier
one Of its reception. Any rea-
sonably good photograph
produces sound that is SUI
perior to TV. TV sound is
good enough for speech in
virtually any form, but 1t
doesn't measure up In music.
~ Since TV is visual, 1t is
natural that the picture has
come in for most attention;
the audio component Is in
variably the stepchild.
Nobody has ever come I'D
with a conclusive reason why
anybody should watch q tele-
cast Of an orchestra playing
the Beethoven Fifth Sym
phony," with the music
sounding like q 1930-type
recording, when he can hear
the same work magnificently
performed by dozens Of or
chestras, with infinitely bet
ter tone quality. over his FIN
radio or on his photograph.
The time Is surely coming
when better techniques and
new kinds of serious music
programs will be developed.
The NBC st. Matthew Pas
sion, using pantomirne and
tableau, is a step in the right
direction. So was the recent
Clam Carlo Menotti tele-
vision opera, Labyrinth"
in which the cameras ability
TO break away from reality
was cleverly utilized. There
have also been some dreadful
failures, of which the most
spectacular was perhaps the
much ballyhooed telecast Of
Igor Stravinsky's Flood"
AS a first step in the direc-
ton Of breaking the music
barrier, why shouldn't each
large TV station and each
network hire qualified music
specialists full time, with au-
thority to command. and
power to experiment, as well
as q realistic budget with
which to work?
II will cost money, true
but there is that $500 million
market at the end of the
rainbow.
NEWS FROM HERE -
William Montgomery, flutist
with the Marine Band, has
arranged q program that is
virtually unique for this
afternoon at Corcoran CAL