MUSIC

Welsh miners’ festival

people's art at best

IVE thousand pitmen and
their families took part at
Porthcawl earlier this month
..in a non-stop 13-hour marathon
of song and verse in the most
outstanding of all the eight an-
nual eisteddfods of the Welsh
miners.

It was a family affair. Yet
nowhere else would the per-
formers ‘have had a more criti-
eal audience than this one in
the Pavilion. At one point a
voice from the gallery demand-
ed: “Move the mike, please.
The basses are too prominent.”
It was done.

After each competition, too,
whether for solo voices or
choirs, the-adjudicators, Profes-
sor Alan Bush or Rhoslyn
Davies, lectured competitors
and audience as if it was the
Royal College of Music.

There was no “talking down”
to this workers’ audience with

its cultural traditions going
back many generations.:

Recitations, essays and short
steries were appraised by Old-
feld Davies of the BBC.

Highest praise was ' given
where due, but no criticism was
spared. This was cultural de-
mocracy in practice.

Geoffrey Hobbs, for instance,
the 14-year-old son of a miner,
forced to leave the pits with
a chestful of silica dust, was
told by Professor Bush:

“You are fortunate in pos-

sessing a voice with an extra-
ordinary sweet tone.’

Geoffrey, who has been sing-
ing since he was eight, won
first prize. with his rendering:
of an Italian love song trans-
lated into Welsh.

But another competitor with
a “potentially very fine voice”
was warned:,

“This young lady is in very
prave danger. In ten years
she will not sing at all if she
does not cure the pronounced
vibrato she has developed.”

Though the audience — which
jammed the aisles and pressed
tight-packed against the walls
— changed during the 13 hours,
a solid core sat tight through-
out. Unselfconsciously it munch-
ed sandwiches, ice cream, pears
and chocolate (but was com-
mended for its discipline).

It was generous in its ap-
plause: For the fair, young
music teacher of Garndiffiath,
the only woman in the eistedd-
fod to conduct a male voice
choir, 53 strong, and win a first
prize in keen competition with
12 others;

For the men of Morlais, who
sang in Latin; for Clements
Scott’s prize-winning Verdi
aria, sung in Italian.

Only a rough-headed school-
boy in the front row — after
nine hours — fell into a sleep
that 150 mixed voices didn’t
disturb.

OPEN FORUM

Jazz article criticized

N. E. Story, Vancouver, B.C.:
Ralph Parker’s article about
“Jazz” in the Soviet Union in
the Pacific Tribune of October

7, although interesting report-

age, was surprisingly ill-inform-
ed for this usually reliable and
instructive writer. The fault
is not entirely his own, for
Soviet musicians (among others)
have long misapplied the term.
Nevertheless, Parker is tho-
roughly confused. He charac-
terizes
jazz, and refers to bands that
are “loud, brassy and energetic,
belonging to the Paul White-
man vintage,” a phrase which
lacks even internal accuracy.
Perhaps the great physical
and cultural distances can ex-
cuse Parker’s mistakes, but it
is difficult to justify the Paci-
fic Tribune’s use of such ma-
terial — at least without some
pretty basic re-writing.
Briefly, jazz is a folk crea-

tion of the American Negro’

people, which reached maturity
in the southern United States
_.after the Civil War and Eman-
cipation (1865). They fashion-
ed it out of the fund of their
African - plantation - religious
heritage, and nourished it with
the most varied urban influ-
ences . ;

“a Swedish tenor” as_

A highly original and virile
folk art, jazz has given voice
to the aspirations and miseries
of a downtrodden people.

Equally important, especially in’

earlier days, was its function
as self-entertainment for a peo-
ple denied access to general
entertainment media by color
bars and poverty.

The instantaneous popularity
of jazz as it spread north dur-
ing the First World War led to
~wholesale plunder. Every ech-
elon of the entertainment mon-
opoly, from ‘some Negro musi-
cians themselves, through such
insufferable hybrids as Paul
Whiteman’s. orchestra to the
slide-rule plagiarists of Tin Pan
Alley, hacked themselves a cut
of the profits. Despite these

depredations, jazz — the folk .

art — survived.

The term “jazz” (jass) was
itself a late arrival, tacked on
long after the art form had
matured. Little wonder, then,
with the general looting of a
people’s music, that the title
should have been appropriated
for every commercial’ conveni-
ence, and general confusion
created in the popular fancy.

Ralph Parker’s error stems
from this confusion of terms,
and ignorance of the folk art
itself. :

4

Prizes & Surprises

DANCE AND SOCIAL EVENING

| Come And Join Us!

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5-9 P.M.
At 2870 WEST BROADWAY

(near MacDonald)

Old Time & Modern Dancing
— Admission - 50c
Auspices: Kits Hoe-Down Club

SOSSSSSS SESSSSS G

‘s
5

at ae ae 2

CHARLIE CHAPLIN
He wrote a letter to...

ROCKWELL KENT
* . . an artist in chains”

US. artists chained — |
by denial of rights

HARLIE CHAPLIN has sent
a cable from his Swiss home

to friends in New York saying
that every American now is
“a prisoner on probation with
a chain around his leg.”

They “could be jailed any
time” they might disagree with
the policy makers in office, he
said.

The world-famous film actor,
who sold out all his United
States interests when refused
permission to re-enter the coun-
try, sent the cable to sponsors
of an exhibition of the work of
Rockwell Kent, noted USS.

* artist.

The sponsors said the exhibi-
tion, Kent’s first in 14 years,
was to raise funds to enable
him to start a legal fight for
a passport, refused by the U.S.
State Department since 1951.

Kent is trying to obtain a
passport to paint abroad. The
state department refused the
passport for “travel anywhere
for any purpose.”

Chaplin said in his message:
“The natural right of every free
man to travel is being violated
more and more by the uncru-
pulous withholding of pass-
ports.

“This situation is most alarm-
ing. For every American to-
day, whether he knows it or
not, is a prisoner on probation
with a chain around his leg to
be drawn in by a jailer at any
time he may disagree with the
political policy-makers who are
in temporary power.

“And who knows that what
we agree about today, we may
disagree about tomorrow.

“Such international artists as
Paul Robeson and Rockwell
Kent, whose art is a credit to
America and whose art has

Is Coming To The
PEACE BAZAAR

Charlie is at his funniest in “CARMEN,” a burlesque

of the famous opera.

with Charlie Chaplin ?

© SUPPER

evening film.

BUY YOUR XMAS CARDS FROMUS

$$9$9S99O99SSSS99SS9

A full-course, hot roast beef.
6 p.m. to 8 p.m, Adults: 5c, Children: 35c.

© CHARLIE CHAPLIN ©
After supper, relax with Charlie. j

DO YOUR CHRISTMAS SHOPPING —
NO ADMISSION CHARGE |

There is no admission charge except for the

enriched understanding be
tween America and Eee es
are chained by this vicious an
dangerous policy.” _

Chaplin added: “To deny na
right to travel to Amen
held in such general respect
abroad ‘is stupid and inhuman.
It destroys American presti8e
and creates doubt and susp
in the’ countries whose frien@—
ship America most needs. x

“This is not a plea alone fo
American artists in chains,
for every American over who
fundamental freedom this men
acing shadow is creeping. | nt

“The violation of the "8
to travel affects every 45 se
of American democracy 3?
freedom. That is why nothing
ean be of greater importanc?
than this effort by the Emerl
ency Civil Liberties Comm
tee.”

Cultural exchanges

New Frontiers theme

ORLD-WIDE exchange 2
cultural delegations | oe
experiences in the spits
coexistence is the theme of the
Fall 1955 issue of New ee
tiers, progressive Canadla
cultural quarterly. . he
The issue is built around te.
exchange idea by carrying
articles and news about Can
ada, Poland, the USSR, bse
nia and Hungary. ‘Poems id
Canadians Wilson MacDona
J. S. Wallace and George BY&
run alongside works ‘from
other lands.
Outstanding feature
issue is the full story of
adian science since 1914. / z
is represented by reproduction
of paintings by Myer RyshP®
of Montreal.

Can-

I Forty-five minutes of laughter.
Begins at 8:30 p.m. Admission: 50c.

for supper, do your Christmas shopping and then laugh

Why not come

Saturday, November 5 — 2 p.m. - 2
RUSSIAN HALL — 600 Campbell Ave. °
© AFTERNOON TEA

Will be served from 2 p.m. till 5 p.m, — 35c.

© CHILDREN’S FILMS

A delightful program of films for children, be- i
ginning at about 3 p.m. FREE. Will occupy the _ %
children while you shop. ; :

er, served from

B.C. PEACE COUNCIL

EO
SSSSHSSSSSSSHSHSHHSSSHSOSOGS HY

4 Be
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 28, 1955 — P. AGE