Page 6
The Nebraskon
Tuesday, Jon. J 7, 196
1VIUSIC popular and othertvise
By Rodger H. Skldmore
Music has grown in popu
larity and changed in form
in the last century; this has
had both good and bad ef
fects on music as an art
form. The invention of the
radio and the phonograph
has made music available
to all who wish to hear it
(also to those who don't).
The phonograph and radio
broke New York City's mo
nopoly on the Metropolitan
Opera House and Caruso's
voice was heard throughout
the country by every small
town opera buff who had a
crystal set or the price of
a record. Via electricity the
New Orleans banjo group
moved onto Park Avenue in
New York, and onto every
Main Street in the U.S.A.
Today, East Coast and West
Coast Jazz meet and min- -gle
in Kansas City enabling
not only everyone to hear
the various styles, but to
affect and be affected by
all forms of music, jazz or
otherwise.
A person who has a love
of classical music can lis
ten to the complete works
of the best composers as
performed by the top sym
phonies in the world any
time that he wishes. This is
something that the richest
persons in the largest cities
could not do before the ad
vent of the phonograph. The
increased availability of
music in all of its forms
(operatic, classical, semi
classical, popular, jazz of
all styles, chamber music,
folk music, etc.) has been
more than matched by an
increase in interest on the
part of the public, yet one
wonders if these increases
in total listening hours have
been accompanied by an in
crease in knowledge about
music, or by a raising of
musical taste i.e., stand
ards. I maintain that the stand
ards of music have not
been raised in the last fifty
years, and that, in the years
since World War II and Ko
rea, they have been low
ered. This lowering of mu
sical standards must be
laid at the feet of our own
generation not at the feet
of our parents, although, as
in all things, they could be
blamed indirectly. When
someone of our generation
gets into trouble or does
something wrong (some
times there is a difference
between the two), the ex
cuse given by his analyst is
that the youth lives in an
insecure world torn by the
tensions created by two
globular powers that are at
opposing ends of economic
and ideologic scales. I do
not know if this is said
simply to reduce the charge
against a delinquent from
murder in the first degree
to malicious mischief or if
the social psychologist real
ly believes it, but whether
he does or not, I don't. The
younger generation, in this
country at least, has it too
soft and is too secure for
its own good. This is shown
by increases in juvenile de
linquency among the mid
dle and upper classes and
by other diverse indicators
such as musical standards.
We, the modern youth of
America, have more money
to spend than any other
similar age group in the ,
history of man. . It is this
increase in personal spend
ing power that has made us
secure, and I for one would
1- ' 4
k 'X.
A - f
y 4
J t
Rodger H. Skid mere was
bom and lives in New York
City. He holds an AAS de
gree in mechanical engineer
ing from New York City
Cc immunity College A sea
for ia Arts and Sciences,
he is majoring in economic.
not like to lower my per
sonal standard of living (I
do not know of anyone be
sides Barry Goldwater who
does), but it is also this in
crease in spending power
that has lowered standards
in music, as well as in oth
er fields.
Today, the record manu
facturing industry is one of
the most lucrative of any
in the country. It is also
the largest industry that
has changed its sales ori
entation to cater more and
more to the teen, pre-teen
and young adult. The num
ber of small professional in
trumental groups and sin
gers that have appeared up
on the American scene in
the last fifteen years all
' being recorded is astro
nomical. All of the record
companies that are started
do sot last nor do all of the
singers and musicians
signed get their contracts
renewed, but there is by
far enough money in the
business for people to keep
trying. The key to success
is that old standby axiom
"give them what they
want." what the record
companies are doing is giv
ing us what we like, but
only if a lot of others like
it also. They are using the
lowest common denomina
tor concept in producing
music and the lowest com
mon denominator seems to
be modified rock and roll.
The popular records pro
duced in the last ten years
have been, for the most
part, of no lasting value.
Bing Crosby, Frank Sina
tra, Nat King Cole, Dean
Martin, Doris Day, Chris
Connor, Peggy Lee, etc. are
all good singers, they can
put a tune over effectively
. and a few years after they
record it it still sounds nice.
These singers have been
around for years, they have
not lowered their standards
and as a result they con
sistantly do very well with
their records. It is the "ones
who have lowered their
standards that make the
wildly successful hit
records; but do you
Frutti" today? I believe the
answer is "no." Songs like
"TutU Frutti," "Black Den
im Trousers," and
"Speedo" do not last, nei
ther do "Alvin the Chip
munk" records. The lyrics
are ground out, the music
is poorly composed . and
equally poorly played, and
the song shouted out with
very little style. The rec
ords are pushed very heav
ily on the radio and dumped
on the market while they
are hot items; overnight
they become seven day
wonders and then die. They
are meant to die as there
are others right behind
them ready to take their
places on the music charts
of the nation and "sell a
million." As long as con
sumers buy inferior pro
ducts manufacturers will
continue to produce them,
and they will be produced
somewhat to the exclusion
of other types of recorded
music.
The radio plays many dif
ferent types of music but
for the most part modified
Rock and Roll is played.
It isnt necessarily because
the station owners like
Rock and Roll but it is what
sponsors are willing to pay
for. Another reason it is
played so often on some
stations it is the only
type of music played is
the same reason that peo
ple but it even though the
quality is poor; this reason
is the beat that the music
has. It is insistent beat
that drags on the nrnd; it
(Please See Page Sevea)
Federico Garcia Lorca
(Continued from Page Four)
PRELUDIO
The ox
closes its eyes
slowly
(heat of the stable)
This is the prelude
of night.
In Lorca's second book of
poems, Cante Jondo, we find
the Andalusian landscape
definitely fused into his
work. Death becomes a
symbol that never leaves
the Lorare now used in the
typical Moorish ballad tradi
tion, with green suggesting
luxuriance, growth, and de
spair, and yellow and black
symbolizing hopelessness.
Loca's preoccupation with
death is more a reflection
of the Spanish temperament
rather than a stylistic or
symbolic element of his po
etry. No geographic area
dramatizes death as much
as Spain and the Spanish
Americas. Unlike many
countries of the West, where
the inevitableness of death
leads to an emphasis on
life, in Spanish - speaking
countries, death and life are
sides of the same coin. The
death of Christ is drama
tized much more in Spam
than in the Vatican. Even
in the national sport of
Spain, bullfighting, the bat
tle moves from ferocious
charges of a green and
black rosetted bull and
graceful passes of a skillful
matador, to a determined
and inevitable climax of life
or death for something or
somebody. Death predomi
nates in the following poems
from Cante Jondo.
CANCION DE PRIMA VERA
(Song of Spring)
On the lonely mountain
A village cemetery
Appears like a field
Sown with seeds of skulls
And cypresses have
flowered
Like gigantic heads
Which with empty sockets
And green hair
Pensively and sadly
Contemplate the skyline.
Death is symbolized as a
woman in the following
y Death
enters and leaves
the tavern.
Black, horses pass
and sinister authorities
on the deep roads
of the guitars.
And there is an odor of salt
and of female's blood
in the burning tuberoses
of the sea.
Lady Death
enters and leaves
and leaves and enters
Lady Death
of the tavern.
There is mystery and aa
eerie atmosphere, all devel
oped against Cordoba in the
background, as death
awaits its prey in Caacfoa de
jiaete (Song of the Horse
man). CORDOBA
Remote and lonely
Black pony, big moon,
And olives in my saddlebag.
Even though I know the
roads
I never will get to Cordoba.
Across the plain, across
the wind
black pony, red moon,
Death is looking at me.
Oh what a long road!
Oh my brave mare!
Oh that Death waits for me,
before arriving at Cordoba!
Cordoba.
Remote and lonely.
The tragic end of a gypsy
is brought out in Strpresa.
(Surprise).
Dead he remained in the
street
with a dagger in his chest.
No one knew him.
How the streetlamp
trembled !
Mother,
How the little lantern of
the street
trembled!
The easy success of Ro
mancer o Gitano (Book of'
Gypsy Ballads), which was
published in 1928, threat
ened Lorca's creative im
pulse. To escape profession
al rivalry and a depression
of spirit which he was suf
fering, Lorca came to New
York in 1930. The imperson
al, highly indifferent, and
mechanistic life of New
York City was not conduc
ive to Lorca as a poet. Not
hav i n g"" his ' ""querencia"
(stompin' grounds), Andalu
sia, he felt the nostalgia of
being an exile. He lived in
the dormitory at Columbia
University while attending
classes there; but language
difficulties forced him to
drop his courses. The poetry
of Poeta en Nueva York,
reveals only longing, loneli
ness, condemnation of the
evils and injustices of the
big city, and an occasional
flash of his old fire. New
York, the city that doesn't
sleep inspired:
No one sleeps in the sky.
No one, No one.
No one sleeps.
But if someone shuts his
eyes r
Whip him, my sons, whip
him.
There is a panorama of
open eyes
and bitter, burning sores.
No one sleeps in the world
No one, no one. I h a v e
said it.
No one sleeps,
But if someone has at night
an excess of moss in his
temples
open the trapdoors for him
to see beneath the moon
the false things, the poison
and skull
of the theaters,
of the theaters.
In Muerte, Lorca expresses
astonishment at the desire
of almost everything in a
materialistic society to lose
itself and become tomt
thing else.
DEATH
What an effort,
what an effort of the horsa
to be a dog,
(Please See Page Seveaj