Views On Music
Brunell, Frank Octave
ence more than this. I should think Schlesinger would have more meticulous regard for the truth than he exhibits in this creation. The least he could do is offer documentation of controversial...
...This book will set "best on bookshelves accompanied by bound editions of Playboy, the autobiography of Lenny Bruce, and Mental First-Aid, Toward Balance in a Dizzy World...
...From 1:30 P.M...
...Yet even this does not represent all the music available for WFIU...
...Major composers are well represented...
...From the Wall Street Journal 12...
...With the fragmentary listing of selections offered by Listen and View one could hardly do this...
...43 (Suite 2) 6:00 P.M., and Schubert Symphony No...
...Instead we find a confusing array of unfamiliar and little known music appearing in much of the broadcast time allotted to serious or classical music by WFIU...
...the book is mainly a collection of articles earlier published in magazines, and a guy does have to make a buck...
...Murphy has labeled the creation: "Lyndon Johnson's Foreign Policy...
...As stated above the station devotes more than half of its broadcast time to serious or classical music...
...In the case of the former, the potential audience is indeed small, for among serious music enthusiasts (a small group itself) the number who are conniosseurs is very small, and this would leave WFIU with a knowledgeable appreciative audience of microscopic proportions...
...But one should not be too harsh on the author...
...The major portion of the station's broadcast time (over 50%) is devoted to serious or classical music...
...The major works of these composers appear with predictable regularity each month...
...Students, by necessity, can only listen to the radio stations when time permits...
...To be more specific one only has to consult the Listen and View program guide of WFIU to find the "major" works listed for August 19,1967 are: Fine: Symphony (1962) 1:35 P.M., Hindemith: Kammermusik 4:00 P.M., Roussel: Bacchus et Ariane, op...
...Just or unjust, this is true...
...Returning to the examples of stations WFLN or WQXR one sees a pattern of programming emerging...
...For instance, the nine symphonies of Beethoven are played at least once a month, and usually twice...
...This would necessarily entail a conscious effort on the part of WFIU to include a larger proportion of the more familiar composers and their masterworks in a regularly recurring pattern...
...George Murphy (R.-Calif...
...Views On Music Indiana University supports its own FM radio station, WFIU...
...So the correlation is clear: great works by major composers are played often by FM classical music stations, are available on many different records, and it follows, they are performed frequently in concert and heard by the greatest number of people...
...Any serious enthusiast of classical music is interested in knowing every piece of music being broadcast on a particular day, as he will want to choose noteworthy or important musical selections that are for him not to be missed...
...The Schwann Long Playing Record Catalog now lists over 35,000 different records on 560 different labels...
...And if when tuning in WFIU, they find this odd array of unfamiliar music assailing them, it would be little wonder that they move on to another station...
...This is the case with many university stations throughout the country...
...From Human Events SIGN OF SUCCESS: When it costs a man more to support his government than to support his family...
...5, 9:00 P.M...
...Every two months the official program guide of WFIU entitled Listen and View is published as part of the Indiana University Bulletins (the same organization printing all publications for the various schools and departments) . This is available free of charge to anyone who makes a written request for it to WFIU...
...to 12 midnight WFIU broadcasts with an effective radiated power of 75,000 watts eminating from an original 10,000 watt power source...
...As most people know the serious music available today on phonograph records is immense...
...A constructive step in appealing to a wider audience might be for the staff in charge of programming to take heed of the excellent example set by the stations mentioned in the above paragraphs (WFLN, WQXR...
...One idea which might be both economical and yet serve the purpose would be to have WFIU supplement the official program guide with a mimeographed list of all the music to be played on WFIU and enclose this material in the bimonthly mailing of Listen and View...
...For instance, in the previous example of August 19 we might hope for three familiar pieces of music and one little known work...
...Then there is the problem of program content...
...is a piece of pop art — a mobile consisting of a halfdozen cutout cardboard hands suspended on strings...
...This is only an example, but in the opinion of this writer is representative of an average broadcast day of WFIU...
...Yet we are dismayed to discover that the same pattern does not hold true for WFIU...
...The studios are located in the Radio and TV Department where students are given practical experience in radio announcing, operation, etc...
...The slightest movement of air sets the cardboard hands moving and pointing in different directions...
...Listen and View unfortunately lists only the highlights of the music to be played on WFIU for the particular two-month period, thus leaving the reader with only a vague idea of the upcoming programs of music...
...One would not expect WFIU to compete with large stations on this count, but the title and composer of all music to be played should be included...
...R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr...
...If, however, the station is directing itself to the university student, then some revision of its programming policy would seem in order...
...Program guides offered by such serious music stations as WFLN (Philadelphia) or WQXR (New York) list each piece of music to be played on their station along with the performer and the company recording the piece...
...Yet there are guidelines...
...There is a complete tape recording service for all programs presented by the university's distinguished School of Music...
...Here shown are three little known works and one familiar piece (Schubert), making the majority time devoted to music which is little known or played...
...Naturally, one has only to turn to the Schwann catalog to find these same works recorded not by one or two performers but by many (each Beethoven symphony is recorded by at least ten different orchestras and in some cases twice that number...
...The Bitter Heritage appears as a rather pitiful production from one of the nation's most prestigious historians...
...Frank Octave Brunell MOBILE POLICY — Hanging from the fireplace mantel in the office of Sen...
...The same pattern is seen with other familiar composers and their works...
...So we come to the crux of the matter: what is the purpose of and to whom is the programming of WFIU directed...
...There are too many worthwhile and valuable things to be heard over WFIU to lose potential listeners in this way...
...Naturally the staff at WFIU, responsible for programming, faces an enormous task in selecting music for their programs...
...Is it to the seasoned connoisseur of music who is only too familiar with the basic symphonic literature, or is it to the university student who is in 11 the learning process and may be just awakening to the world of serious music...
...The least he could do is offer documentation of controversial statements...
...In approximately 500 different music programs each year to choose from in the School of Music's recitals, chamber music programs, choral works, and operas, one finds much music not even available on record...
Vol. 1 • September 1967 • No. 1
