Newspapers / Salem College Student Newspaper / Feb. 5, 1954, edition 1 / Page 3
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Page Three Ann Campbell, Donald Caldwell and Ella Ann Lee take time out from studies to listen to their favorite types of music. Campbell,Caldwell AndLee Express Views On Popular, Classical, And Semi-Classical M.usic Semi-classical Music By Ann Campbell Semi-classical music is the Golden Mean of music. It is not too highbrow for the lowbrow nor too lowbrow for the highbrpw. In this musical category can be found many of the all-time favor ites. People who care nothing about Bach or Wagner can appre ciate the music of Gilbert and Sul livan and those who dote on Pale strina or Brahms can also enjoy Kern or Gershwin. Gershwin, the most outstanding American composer of semi-clas sical music, has been universally accepted by the long-haired maes tro and “Be-Bop Buddy”. Gersh win delved into jazz and came up with a concerto. His preludes and “Cuban Rhap sody” have decided rhythmic pat terns which delight music lovers everywhere. No composer has de picted the mood'of the South better than Gershwin in his opera “Porgy and Bess.” From this opera, “Sum mertime” has become a classic of the semi-classics. Through the medium of popular classical or semi-classical music, the general public is introduced to classical music. In concerts artists perform familiar numbers to ap peal to the musical layman as well ■|ias the long-haired music which is known only to the professional musician. i Also the movie industry has |helped promote interest in classical jmusic through the means of semi- classical music. One example of this is found in the recent movie “Story of Three Loves”. One of the numbers played was Rachman inoff’s 18th Variation on a theme by tPaginini. f It immediately became a favorite lover the nation and everywhere people are asking “Can you play |‘The Story of Three Loves’?” True, it may be hard to forgive the ignorance of the musical layman, but it is encouraging to , note that through semi-classical music often ;,an interest in classical music is aw'akened. Classical music may be referred to as being white as Monday’s fwash and popular music as being .fire-engine red. But semi-classical .is a nice, healthy pink. It is mid- iWay between two extremes — The f J^oiden Mean. ■ Popular Music By Donald Caldwell I like pop music. This is the form of music that most of us non music majors enjoy. Popular music can be divided into many different distinct groups such as jazz, bop, folk tunes, and the many pop tunes. The radio, television, and juke boxes play the pop tunes for us constantly, so everyone (including the most fanatical classic fan) is fairly familiar with them. These tunes are the ones that everyone is simply wild about for a short period of time, then the tunes fade gracefully into the back ground. How long has it been since you’ve heard “Lavender Blue” or “There’s A Tree in the Meadow?” But we can remember when these and many more were the top tunes of the day and now they have vanished and no one is sorry—ex cept maybe a couple who had picked them as “their song.” This is what happens to most pop tunes and pop singers, too. Frank Sinatra was the teenage idol at one time; everybody swooned when Frank began to sing. Today all Frank Sinatra means to most of us is Ava Gardner’s husband or the actor in “From Here to Eternity.” And what happened to Johnny Ray? It was only about a year ago that Johnny Ray’s voice was heard from every direction. “Cry,” “The Little White Cloud That Cried,” “Please, Mr. Sun,” and other of Johnny Ray’s records were all on the hit parade at the same time. Johnny Ray has been left behind in the change to smoother music. Pop tunes have a peculiar habit of reappearing after many years of obscurity. How many times have you come in humming the latest tune and Mother has said that it wms popular in her day ? This hap pens as popular trends change from gay to sad to sentimental, etc. A type of song that falls under the pop tune is the novelty song. Novelty songs are ones that have a catch rhythm or absurd topic. These are also quick to reach the top, then fall away. How long has it been since anyone sang “The Thing?” Or “Sister’s Shimmying on the Beach Again?” Of course there are the pop tunes that really have something new to say or a new way of saying some thing old. These are the pop tunes that live on — such as “White Christmas” and “Stardust. Another type of popular music that lives ' on is the folk music. Everyone sings “Old Texas, Shes Coming Around the Mountain,” “Dinah Blow Your Horn,” and other folk tunes at camp, parties, or anytime a group starts singing. Spirituals are a type of folk tunes that we constantly hear or sing. What would a community sing be without “Peace in the Valley” or (Continued On P»«o Four) Classical Music By Ella Ann Lee At the mention of classical music, the average person immediately conjects a picture of some long, gray-haired musician, a warped anemic intellectual, or a distasteful picture of his first piano teacher who was the cause of many tor tured hours of practicing. The reason for this is probably because Mr. Average has been care fully sheltered from hearing much of the classics. Thanks to the fadio, Mr. Average’s taste in music has been mostly confined to trite little love tunes and hot jazz. Also the radio has induced snickers from an audience who listens to the William Tell Overature and im mediately thinks of the Lone Ranger. Even though that music isn’t of rare genius, one couldn’t blame the composer for “rolling over in his grave” every time his music was used as an accompaniment for “The hearty hoofbeats of the great horse Silver!” Or Tchaikowsky for let ting out a few censored words whenever his lovely theme from the Pathetique Symphony opens the grand opera of all soap operas, “When a Girl Marries.” But if one is interested enough in hearing classical music, the radio obliges you between the hours of 1:00 to S :00 a.m., when they are positive no one but truck drivers and real music lovers will be listen ing. When Mr. Average argues that he could enjoy classical music if it only had some melody, musicians usually bite their tongues before they can control themselves enough to reply calmly, “Where would you get such songs as “Till the End of Time,” “Full Moon and Empty Arms?” Honestly, you do wonder, what song writers would do if they couldn’t plagiarize the classics! I don’t know whether its illegal or not, but if I were brilliant enough to write some great sym phony, I’d personally shoot the per son who wrote lyrics like “We’ll Play Smackie-Mouth Forever and Ever” and storm the country with his new song. I imagine Mr. Average would be B. Low Average if it weren’t for the movies. The background music for movies often comes direct from such greats as Brahms’ Symphony No. 3, Wagner’s “Tristam and Is olde” and such. Even though it might be subconsciously, the music makes an imprint. Movies more and more are featuring classics. The “Story of Three Loves” is a grand example. No lyrics or any- (Cputiaued On Pace Four) All Music Creates Moods ... Sad, Happy, Dreamy And Mad By Sally Reiland Music. It can make you sad and it can make you happy. It ^an lift you up and sweep you away into a land of impossible dreams, or it can creep silently around you and bring you to the reality of things. It can make you laugh with it or cry with it; dance with it or relax with it; love with it or leave with it. Most of all, then, music sets a mood. And the mood each piece sets is a mood all its own. And the mood all its own is all your own too, for it never sets exactly the same mood for any two people. Mood music is like poetry. It is composed to move you, as poetry is written to move you. So it is that all music is really mood music, for all music is to be felt—and feelings create moods. Actually, then, the recent trend toward “Mood Music” is nothing new, for music has always evoked moods. It is only the conscious creation of a specific mood by the contemporary composer or arranger that makes it in any sense of the word “new.” For now, primary importance is placed on attaining an effect through dramatic orch estral arrangements— of creating the mood of one particular emotion through the singing strings of what sounds like a million violins, or through the soaring tones of a mel low trumpet. Of creating all this and then throwing it, so to speak, at the listener. Of all contemporary arrangers and conductors, Jackie Gleason has probably made the biggest contri bution to this move toward cons cious “mood music,” or at least, he is most popular at present. For who can deny that a wisp of cigar ette smoke in the soft lamplight, the tinkle of a glass, a hushed whisper — and “Music For Lovers Only” produces the mood of love’s entrancing setting?. Or that his “Lover’s Rhapsody”, depicting in melody the feelings of desire, flirt ation, temptation and enchantment, does not create those very feelings in the sympathetic listener ? Like wise with his “Music To Make You Misty,” which does just what it says—and “Tawny,” a recording of the music from his thrilling ballet of the same name, in which the listener feels intensely the varying moods enveloping the girl. Tawny. Despite the tendency of all recent music to create a romantic mood, some groups, including the Melan- chrino Strings, have released al- ' bums of “Music for Dancing,” “Music for Relaxing,” and “Music for Reading” which are designed, as the titles indicate, to aid the indigestion, untie the tired body, and help the comprehension of a novel.. , Yet again, there are those re cords that take the listener on a trip—for in such as Morton Gould’s recording of the “Mediterranean Concerto,” the listener can feel the waves rolling under him; or can capture the mood of a Colorado sunset in Stan Kenton’s “Theme to the West.” Francis Scott and his orchestra have made great contributions to the modern concept of music for listening in albums like “Moods for Candlelight,” and “Moods for Starlight” . . . Also, Otto Cesana in the moods of enchantment in his album, “Ecstasy,” and Paul Weston in his arrangements of “Music for the Fireside,” “Music for Romanc ing” and such others. Music composed for movie back grounds has also made a great im pression in the mood music “in dustry.” This music is often taken directly from the sound tracts of movies and brings the moods of “Spellbound Concerto,” “Streetcar Named Desire,” “Sadie Thompson’s Theme,” “Gone With the Wind,” “Ruby,” “Hi Lili Hi Lo,” “Anna” and others from behind the scenes into your own living room. Victor Young is one of the top recorders of many movie themes, as he has composed or arranged the music for some of today’s outstanding movies. At any rate, whether music comes from movie sound tracts—from the stack of long-play records on your automatic player —• from a light music concert in your home town —or from “Birdland” in New York, it has a meaning for you. Music. Most of all, it sets a mood for you. It may lift you up or put you down; whirl you around or leave you still; make you sad or make you happy. It may be clas sical—or popular—or in between— anything from a progressive jazz to the easy-listening music of the day; it may be to you “A Place in the Sun,” or it may be “Shadows.” . . . But whatever it is, when it creates feeling in you, it becomes your “Mood Music.” PEARL- MONGER PUMP By Joyce $10.95 Jean Httfersan Sime>9S 0MiO Jloluse OF WINSTON-SALEM 421 W. 4th St.
Salem College Student Newspaper
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Feb. 5, 1954, edition 1
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