Skip to main content
Read page text
page 2
232 The GRAAIOPHONE November 1937 television or the perfection of various broadcasting services should be hampered by lack of funds due to unreasonable taxation. Unless television is to be allowed a chance to develop i t had better be left alone altogether; and i t is perfectly clear that television never will develop until television"stations are established all over the country, for the value of i t will lie rather in its ability to annihilate space by keeping everybody in the country in touch with what is happen" ing everywhere rather than in deliberately setting out to provide entertainment. One of the great advantages of broadcasting is that i t eliminates sight and encourages the mind's eye. The trouble with any advance is that one can never step back. I think the introduction of talkies was a dubious benefit, but once introduced i t is impossible to imagine returning to silent films. There is a good deal to be said against broadcasting drama, but I think that televised drama will prove a Frankenstein when i t comes. And it is to be remembered that when i t does come we shall not be able to . go back to broadcasting drama unaided by television. That may seem a good argument against the development of television, but once again I repeat one cannot go back, and having gone so far with television we must go on. Under all these menaces the future prospects of the gramophone become increasingly rosy. The technique of recording continues to show a steady advance and I can tell from my correspondence that the figures of gramophone converts are steadily being maintained. When one takes up the latest catalogue of His Master's Voice, "Recorded Music," and turns over the 480 pages, one is amazed again at the richness and variety of its contents. To the editor who occupies himself with the task of maintaining the accuracy of this catalogue the grateful thanks of all of us are due , Perhaps nobody who has not been called upon to read proofs can appreciate what a task the reading of these proofs means. English, French, German, Italian, not to mention Gaelic and other languages. Complicated Slav, Hungarian and Czech names. Keys and instruments. And worst of all numbers: about 75,000 threeor four-figure groups! And if one figure is wrong the whole industry is in a whirlwind. Looking through this great catalogue, 1 find only one serious omission, but that omission is so serious that I must enter a solemn protest against it. Page 24 carries on the top of i t the Royal Arms, underneath which is a list of sixteen royal records which His Master's Voice has had the honour of making. Was it by the wish of his ex-Majesty King Edward VIII that the record of his abdication speech was not circulated? An assurance from the recording companies that this omission is due only to the express desire of H.R.H. Duke of Windsor would allay the resentment which many of the Duke's late subjects throughout the Empire feel over what, until they have some assurance to the contrary, seems a cold and caIculated insult on a par with the many other cold and calculated insults which have been offered to a man who has shown his country such an example of courage and sincerity. I possess a record of that abdication speech, the most poignant speech monarch ever made, but my record had to be imported from over the Atlantic and owing to the difficulties of perfect transmission does not do justice to that historic speech. What influence was brought to bear to suppress the record which must have been made in this country? Was i t a mistaken sense offit.ness, or was i t subserviency to the bureaucratic powers that be, or was i t merely nervousness which prevented any of the recording companies from putting this record into general circulation? I f some bureaucratic mandarin interfered to stop the circulation of this record, the public has a right to hear which particular mandarin i t was. The only valid excuse for suppressing this record was that i t was in deference to the wishes of H. M. King George VI, which I do not believe, or of H.R.H. Duke of Windsor, which I do not believe either. I have kept silent on this matter until now because 1 had hoped to see in this new catalogue the record duly listed, but 1 cannot keep silent any longer now that 1 am compelled to realize that its suppression is evidently intended to be permanent. Readers of this paper cannot accuse me of giving vent to my personal feelings in this matter during the months since last December, but I feel too strongly about this subject to keep silent any longer, and as 1 consider the suppression of this record a matter which THE GRAMOPHONE may becomingly protest, I make that protest now. If the recording companies can adduce satisfactory reasons to justify their action in not circulating this record, I shall be happy to apologize for the observations made above. In writing like this 1 have no desire to stir up controversy, and no controversial letters on this subject will be published. When from Windsor Castle H.R.H. Prince Edward made that last speech he was speaking to the world of to-day and the world of to-morrow, and such a speech does not deserve oblivion. As a supplement to the General Catalogue ofH.M.V. Music we have been given what is called a " Mood Music" catalogue, obtainable only from His Master's Voice, 363 Oxford Street, W. I , a really admirable combination, of the greatest use to a variety of people, and -I quote from the compiler's notes- here are some of the headings of the Moods: Gay - Light - Comic - Jolly Quaint - Impertinent. Gay - Brilliant - Effervescent Sparkling. Pastoral - Peaceful - Serene. RushingDashing. Teashop - Pretty-Pretty. Tripping - Dainty. Sad - Heavy - Ascetic - Spiritual - Divine - Sublime. Grand - Pompous - Majestic. Serious - Tragic Gloomy - Sad. Stormy - Wild - Tempestuous. WeirdHarrowing - Ghoulish. You will notice that the compiler has avoided providing music for the mood of love, and that bears out the difficulty we have recently been discussing of
page 3
November 1937 The GRAMOPHONE 233 agreeing about music's ability to express love. No doubt if the " Mood Music" catalogue develops, all sorts of fresh headings will suggest themselves, and I suggest for the next edition a l ist of romantic tunes ; and this suggests a very good competition. To the reader whose list of what he considers the best twelve romantic tunes, and is supported by the majority of competitors, we will award the usual album of his own choice (not a Society album). Entries for this competition-which must not be sent to Barra, but to the London Office of THE GRAMOPHONE, marked" Roman- t ic Tunes" on the outside of the envelope-will close on November 16, 1937. I am afraid that a more than usual fully-occupied visit to London has kept me from hearing any music of this last month, and so I shall have to postpone anything I have to say about recent records until nex t month. I know readers will appreciate how difficult i t is to find t ime for everything, and unless one has t ime to l isten to music one cannot write about i t with any profit either to oneself or to the reader. COMPTON MACKENZIE. DIALECT RECORDS Issued by The British Drama League reviewed by S. P. B. MAIS A VERY notable Committee, which included Lord Tweedsmuir, Miss Elsie Fogerty, Mr. William Will and Mr. Geoffrey Whitworth, were entrusted with the preparation of this series of dialect records, and it is typical of the thoroughness with which they set out to ·do their work that they selected a standard passage for all speakers based on Skeat's Phonetic Survey of 1884, which comprises in the shortest possible space all the sounds in the phonetic alphabet. I find i t hard to believe that they took equal pains to find the most able dialecticians to speak these pieces, for the sad truth is that very few of the speakers convince me that they are really using what is to them the speech of every day. The county dialects as I hear them every day in the village inns are still, in spite of the teacher and the B.B.C., racy, vigorous, individual and colourful. I find much less standardization of English than I have been led to expect from articles in the press and hearsay. But country manners and country customs are disappearing as quickly and finally as the villages which have been destroyed to make room for the arterial roads, and the danger of losing the county dialects is greater now than at any other t ime in history. The improvement in transport is, of course, answerable to some degree for an intermingling of countrymen and a consequent pooling of pronunciations, and i t is therefore peculiarly important to have accurate recordings of the pure dialects while they are still easily obtainable and capable of being verified. Now this is where some of these records seem to me at fault. I play cricket for a Sussex village and in the heat of a crisis any of the eleven are l iable to forget their acquired school English and lapse into the real vernacular. But their vernacular-I speak of a. village west of Brighton-bears very little resemblance to the dialect spoken by Mr. R. W. White of Battle. Perhaps the truth is that West Sussex differs from East Sussex as much as North Wales differs from South Wales. " Plaace" and "geat" sound all wrong to me for Sussex, though "middlin'" and "sUl·elye" go through the whole county. And why" muss " for" mister" ? A big fault with these records is that the speakers were required each to recite a poem, and the only one of the twenty-four who showed any capacity to read poetry as i t should be read was Mr. James Woodburn of Ayr, who had the great advantage of reading Burns as Burns probably meant his poems to be read . I t is significant that the second best r eader of verse was Mr. John Lauric of Dumfries, who in the Scottish Border record was able to bring out the dramatic tension of " The Wife of Usher's Well." But all the English dialect speakers fought shy of their poems. The most musical, most natural, most witty, and most successful record by far is Mr. Tony Quin's Irish Free State record, for he gave us a slice of Synge's" Playboy of the Western World" and another equally astringent sample of O'Casey's "The Plough and the Stars," and none of the English records could vie with that in raciness of idiom or in musical cadences. Erse may or may not be dead, but the brand of English heard in South Ireland is as virile as the English spoken in South Carolina. Indeed, some of the English dialect speakers made their speeches sound as forced and artificial as the antics of a townsman condescending to gambol round a Maypole. I had no idea before that the speech of my own county of Devon could be made to sound so turgid, witless, and devoid of colour as i t sounded from the lips of Mr. Abel Johns of Kelly. Cornwall was luckier in her interpreter, Mr. Richard J. Noall of Hellesvean, but both the West Countrymen lacked the fire that I am accustomed to hear any day of the week in the pub and on any Sunday in the year in the chapel. Mr. Walter R. Bawler of Blackmore Vale is either an apt disciple of the poet William Barnes, or Barnes's Dorset still remains the speech of the county. It is perhaps significant that he confined himself to extracts from Barnes. Mr. J. A. Garton of the Mendip Hills read one of his own poems. I detected no false quantities in his interpretation of Somerset, which once more bore out my theory that in essence good Somerset and good Devon are almost indistinguishable.

Page Text

View plaintext

232

The GRAAIOPHONE

November 1937

television or the perfection of various broadcasting services should be hampered by lack of funds due to unreasonable taxation. Unless television is to be allowed a chance to develop i t had better be left alone altogether; and i t is perfectly clear that television never will develop until television"stations are established all over the country, for the value of i t will lie rather in its ability to annihilate space by keeping everybody in the country in touch with what is happen" ing everywhere rather than in deliberately setting out to provide entertainment. One of the great advantages of broadcasting is that i t eliminates sight and encourages the mind's eye. The trouble with any advance is that one can never step back. I think the introduction of talkies was a dubious benefit, but once introduced i t is impossible to imagine returning to silent films.

There is a good deal to be said against broadcasting drama, but I think that televised drama will prove a Frankenstein when i t comes. And it is to be remembered that when i t does come we shall not be able to . go back to broadcasting drama unaided by television. That may seem a good argument against the development of television, but once again I repeat one cannot go back, and having gone so far with television we must go on.

Under all these menaces the future prospects of the gramophone become increasingly rosy. The technique of recording continues to show a steady advance and I can tell from my correspondence that the figures of gramophone converts are steadily being maintained.

When one takes up the latest catalogue of His Master's Voice, "Recorded Music," and turns over the 480 pages, one is amazed again at the richness and variety of its contents. To the editor who occupies himself with the task of maintaining the accuracy of this catalogue the grateful thanks of all of us are due , Perhaps nobody who has not been called upon to read proofs can appreciate what a task the reading of these proofs means. English, French, German, Italian, not to mention Gaelic and other languages. Complicated Slav, Hungarian and Czech names. Keys and instruments. And worst of all numbers: about 75,000 threeor four-figure groups! And if one figure is wrong the whole industry is in a whirlwind. Looking through this great catalogue, 1 find only one serious omission, but that omission is so serious that I must enter a solemn protest against it. Page 24 carries on the top of i t the Royal Arms, underneath which is a list of sixteen royal records which His Master's Voice has had the honour of making. Was it by the wish of his ex-Majesty King Edward VIII that the record of his abdication speech was not circulated? An assurance from the recording companies that this omission is due only to the express desire of H.R.H. Duke of Windsor would allay the resentment which many of the Duke's late subjects throughout the Empire feel over what, until they have some assurance to the contrary, seems a cold and caIculated insult on a par with the many other cold and calculated insults which have been offered to a man who has shown his country such an example of courage and sincerity. I possess a record of that abdication speech, the most poignant speech monarch ever made, but my record had to be imported from over the Atlantic and owing to the difficulties of perfect transmission does not do justice to that historic speech. What influence was brought to bear to suppress the record which must have been made in this country? Was i t a mistaken sense offit.ness, or was i t subserviency to the bureaucratic powers that be, or was i t merely nervousness which prevented any of the recording companies from putting this record into general circulation? I f some bureaucratic mandarin interfered to stop the circulation of this record, the public has a right to hear which particular mandarin i t was. The only valid excuse for suppressing this record was that i t was in deference to the wishes of H. M. King George VI, which I do not believe, or of H.R.H. Duke of Windsor, which I do not believe either. I have kept silent on this matter until now because 1 had hoped to see in this new catalogue the record duly listed, but 1 cannot keep silent any longer now that 1 am compelled to realize that its suppression is evidently intended to be permanent. Readers of this paper cannot accuse me of giving vent to my personal feelings in this matter during the months since last December, but I feel too strongly about this subject to keep silent any longer, and as 1 consider the suppression of this record a matter which THE GRAMOPHONE may becomingly protest, I make that protest now. If the recording companies can adduce satisfactory reasons to justify their action in not circulating this record, I shall be happy to apologize for the observations made above.

In writing like this 1 have no desire to stir up controversy, and no controversial letters on this subject will be published.

When from Windsor Castle H.R.H. Prince Edward made that last speech he was speaking to the world of to-day and the world of to-morrow, and such a speech does not deserve oblivion.

As a supplement to the General Catalogue ofH.M.V. Music we have been given what is called a " Mood Music" catalogue, obtainable only from His Master's Voice, 363 Oxford Street, W. I , a really admirable combination, of the greatest use to a variety of people, and -I quote from the compiler's notes- here are some of the headings of the Moods: Gay - Light - Comic - Jolly Quaint - Impertinent. Gay - Brilliant - Effervescent Sparkling. Pastoral - Peaceful - Serene. RushingDashing. Teashop - Pretty-Pretty. Tripping - Dainty. Sad - Heavy - Ascetic - Spiritual - Divine - Sublime. Grand - Pompous - Majestic. Serious - Tragic Gloomy - Sad. Stormy - Wild - Tempestuous. WeirdHarrowing - Ghoulish.

You will notice that the compiler has avoided providing music for the mood of love, and that bears out the difficulty we have recently been discussing of

read next page

My Bookmarks

Buy this Book
Skip to main content