Shown here is part of the crowd that attended the Slavic Folk Art Exhibition at its opening in Toronto lact month. At right is one of the hundreds og exhibits, a wood carving from the Moscow region f the Soviet Union. :

Slavic Folk Art Exhibition

wins praise ocross country

‘HE Exhibition of Slavic Folk Art and Handicrafts, which has enjoyed great success in sev- eral Canadian cities, will open here at a hall not decided upon at Pacific Tribune press time, on Wednesday, January 5, and con- tinue until Saturday, January 8.

When the exhibition visited Re- gina this month it was officially opened by Mayor Leslie Ham- mond. Also attending were Premier T. C. Douglas and Labor Minister C. C. Williams.

People travelled as far as 150 miles to Moose Jaw when the ex- hibition visited that city. Handi- craft guild members, teachers, lawyers, doctors, workers, prom- inent business men and young people turned out to view and applaud the remarkable display of exhibits.

The Regina Leader-Post report on the exhibition said,:in part:

“Gleaming black polished _ lacquer from the village of Fedo- skin formed an outstanding part

of the Byelorussia and Russia’

Misplay, 274s .

“Bone work in mammoth and walrus tusk from northern Rus- sia were fashioned in delicately carved brooches, buttons e,bars, partridges, foxes and reindeer in harness. —

“Walls of the hall were divid- ed into the Slavie country dis-

plays. Spotlights were installed to bring out the coior and beauty of the exhibition.

“Four pairs of dolls, male and female, from different parts: of Poland were highlights of the Polish section. These dolls had leather faces and hands in which the microscopic stitching was barely visible.

“Handmade cut-glass was dis- played on black velvet in the Czechoslovak display. . . .

“In the Yugoslav section hand- woven carpets were displayed. A handwoven coverlet had an inter- esting cross-stitch design... .

“Rugs in lovely tones and de- signs were outstanding in the Bulgaria display. Wood carvings included: miniature table sets... .

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“Highlights of the Ukraine dis- play were the cross-stitched em-

broidery and wood _ carvings. Prominent were the shirts and towels, in various patterns and combinations including gold

woven thread work. There was a

Canadian scene of a homestead created with birchbark. Complete man’s and woman’s costumes from Kiev region were included,” The tour, sponsored by the Canadian Slav Committee, is un- der the direction of William Ma- lynchuk of Montreal. -

Folk song collection fills long - felt need

| appa have a heritage of folk music as rich as any, and Folk Songs of Canada (obtain- able in Vancouver at the People’s

_ Cooperative Bookstore, 337 West

Pender, price $5.20) makes that heritage more accessible to us.

In this collection of songs are some brought centuries ago by the settlers from France, Ireland, and Scotland, some native to our soil, some whose melodies are from the old countries with words adapted to tell of life in the new land. The seventy-seven songs presented by the editors, Edith Fulton Fowke and Richard John- ston, are well chosen, represent- ing mainly French and English. Although one Indian and one Eskimo song have been included, this is scarcely a token acknow- ledgement of the wealth of beauti- ful and singable melodies coming to us from the original inhabi- tants of Canada.

The National Museum, through Dr. Marius Barbeau and others, has done extensive work in col- lecting such songs and they are readily available at the Museum in’ Ottawa. Many more of these songs should have been included

in this anthology.

The authors say that the In- dian and Eskimo songs have limit- ed general appeal. That may be so, but it is in just such a book

as this that these songs should .

appear so that they may be brought to the attention of all

who are interested in folk songs.

Often, songs may not have im- mediate appeal but on second or third hearing, their own peculiar beauty is discovered. ye

The French songs presented in- clude such familiar ones as “A La Claire Fontaine,” “Allouette,” “D’ou Viens Tu Bergere?” and “Viva la Canadienne.” There are, of course, others perhaps not so well known outside of Quebec such as “A Saint Malo,” “Dans les Chantiers,” “Bonhomme! Bon- homme!”

Most of the English songs in the book are from the east, among

them “The Farmer’s Cursed Wife,” “The Quaker’s Courtship,” “Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor.” ‘The Kelligrews’ Soiree.” ‘ There are a few from the west such as “The Red River Valley,” The Tenderfoot,” “The Straw- berry Roan,” “When the Ice Worms Nest Again” and “There Was Blood on the Saddle.” However, there has not been nearly enough research done in the Provinces west of Quebec, for anything other than Indian songs. Surely- the pioneers of the prairie provinces sang of their land clearing for their home- steads, or as they gathered the harvest in the fall. Surely the

_ railway builders, the loggers and

the fishermen of the west sang of the toil and hardship and the joy of accomplishment as their labors bore fruit. . :

And what of the songs of the national groups in Canada? Sure- ly they too have a place in an anthology of Canadian song.

xt es

The collection contains songs of the past, of the sea, the woods, paddling songs, nonsense songs, each in some way ‘Canadian, whether originating here or hav- ing been brought here and sung so frequently as to have become Canadian. The translations from French to English are among the best to have appeared so far,

The music, arranged for piano or guitar, is tastefully done, so that it retains the simplicity of ny pees and is yet unobtru-

ve, an e notes are well done, aoa tive, . _ The cov. it looks rather

the contents, Within this ublicati Peake OE lication can be national music. resent more tha Folk Songs of

These songs rep- n an heirloom, Canada is a good book and a long-awaited must for

people who like to sing.

Gwyn Thomas disappointing in latest of his Welsh novels

is with a very special feeling of anticipation that one opens a new novel by Gwyn Thomas. Is this going to be the one? Is this going to be the book, the master-

“piece, the seeds of which could

be seen so plainly in Dark Phil- osophers and Venus and the

Voters? So it was with his latest

book, The Stranger at My Side, (obtainable in Vancouver at the People’s Cooperative Bookstore, 337 West Pender, price $2.50) but alas, that promise is as yet un- fulfilled, some six years and as many books later.

Indeed, where the early books left off, the author seems almost to be satir- izing them. '

The bitter irony has become blunted, the down to earthness which characterized the earlier “voters” has almost vanished, and only. the fantasy is left, so

_ they appear as half men, unreal people, who live still in the de- ~

pression years.

So real were his early charac- ter,s, so rooted in their Welsh valley, that one wanted to see them grow, to see how they react- ed to changing social conditions, to see how their children turned Olt f

far from. going on

Some of these children we saw, to be sure, sympathetically and humorously depicted in A Frost on My Frolic, but there Gwyn Thomas has left tiem and return-

ed in his latest book to the pre- war years: :

The characters in The Stranger at My Side have become little more than pegs on which to hang humorous situations and there are too few of the flashes of the penetrating comment we have come to expect from the author. They are isolated characters, comical, humorous, yes, but lost in the sense that they are no

longer rooted in their social en-

vironment: |

There are, of course, richly hu- morous scenes in The Stranger at My Side, although too often these border perilously upon farce. There is still that marvel- lous richness of imagery, that wizardry of the English language, but that too, is almost too much — one feels at times as though the author had become intoxicat- ed with his own verbal dexterity and luxuriant imagination.

It is quite difficult to see what the story is trying to say.

_ earnestness

In essence it deals with the struggles of various characters to try to “beat the system” by going into business for them-

selves as exceedingly inept paint-

ers and decorators, and the temp- orary conversion of the old radi- cal Uncle Edwin into a go-getting “free enterpriser’ under the er- ratic guidance of Theo Morgan, “a fierce enemy of dedicated in any shape or form.”

By the time they have fallen, off all the ladders in the neigh- borhood and been chased out of the tabernacle by the preacher, Uncle Edwin is ready to return to his Discussion Circle and Theo. Morgan is considerably chastened by his fall from a scaffold and the - consequent concussion. Thus we — are back where we started.

The book shows signs of hasty writing — in one or two places explanations are repeated almost _ word for word—so perhaps one ean hope from this that Thomas himself does not regard A Stran- ger at My Side too seriously and — that he will soon produce the book for which we have been | waiting. eee:

| —-ROSALEEN ROSS. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 24, 1954 — PAGE 8

the seeds of our

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