Reviews
Tyrrell, R. Emmett Jr.
THE SEARCH (Continued from Page 2) student electorate had gone on vacation, student government could not. Students elected for the fall semester could go to work immediately in a Pupils'...
...43 (Suite 2) 6:00 P.M., and Schubert Symphony No...
...This is the case with many university stations throughout the country...
...The studios are located in the Radio and TV Department where students are given practical experience in radio announcing, operation, etc...
...So we come to the crux of the matter: what is the purpose of and to whom is the programming of WFIU directed...
...Exercising a polemicist's expertise with half-truths and imprecise rhetoric this book differs from Schlesinger's earlier works, for he once wrapped such sophistry in a pleasant package of rhetorical elegance, compelling even those whom his ideas repulsed...
...And of course he once again warns his faithful audience of the fiendish provincialism of "the Generals...
...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...
...Viewing the peculiar logic of his disordered paragraphs one might conclude vegetable soup had been spilled over the manuscript while on its way to press...
...Yet there are guidelines...
...But one should not be too harsh on the author...
...The least he could do is offer documentation of controversial statements...
...Houghton Mifflin Company, cheap The Bitter Bunk In The Bitter Heritage Arthur Schlesinger, Jr...
...The major portion of the station's broadcast time (over 50%) is devoted to serious or classical music...
...There is a complete tape recording service for all programs presented by the university's distinguished School of Music...
...Few will be surprised that PRP had a far weightier proportion in the summer Senate than the student vote of last May projected...
...The author blabbers confused and disarrayed homilies on — among other diffuse subjects — the prophetic value of history, the Russo-Chinese split, and the threat of war psychosis on freedom in America...
...That two-thirds of the voters' representatives were forced by economic exigency to be away from campus did not trouble loftman greatly...
...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...
...Naturally the staff at WFIU, responsible for programming, faces an enormous task in selecting music for their programs...
...George Nathan REVIEWS THE BITTER HERITAGE By Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr...
...Major composers are well represented...
...The Schwann Long Playing Record Catalog now lists over 35,000 different records on 560 different labels...
...The major works of these composers appear with predictable regularity each month...
...Schlesinger often takes the worst possible argument against his thesis, inflates it, and decimates it under a bombardment of nuclear logic...
...In alleging the Vietnam struggle is something other than an invasion from the north Schlesinger cites four newspaper correspondents as "the best evidence", when among others Hanson Baldwin, Russell Fifield, Bernard Fall, and most incriminating of all the International Control Commission have asserted that northern infiltrators began the strife that blights South Vietnam today...
...Yet we are dismayed to discover that the same pattern does not hold true for WFIU...
...If then you are tired of the badgering of the vermin, the sour grapes of oxymorons from Life, and the ranting leadership of the Great Unwashed, we are sure you will want to know of The Alternative...
...Then there is the problem of program content...
...With a presidential advisor like Schlesinger I can not imagine how President Kennedy ever kept his cabinent busy...
...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...
...He did not protest this twisting of the democratic process...
...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...
...With the fragmentary listing of selections offered by Listen and View one could hardly do this...
...Just or unjust, this is true...
...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...
...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 book is mainly a collection of articles earlier published in magazines, and a guy does have to make a buck...
...sets a world record for brevity (126 pages) in analyzing the history leading to our present Vietnamese imbroglio and avering vapid suggestions for a political rather than military solution...
...This silly scoundrel no more respects the student body than he respects soap...
...The Bitter Heritage is the emaciated work of a malingering historian with an inexorable penchant toward forensics...
...Thus in explaining our commitment in Vietnam he neglects those arguing our presence there is based on containing communism, and instead hammers away at the argument that the SEATO treaty's protocol gives legitimacy to our involvement...
...Views On Music Indiana University supports its own FM radio station, WFIU...
...Less then twenty-one days elapsed between our first successful test of the bomb at Almogordo and the destruction of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945...
...Students elected for the fall semester could go to work immediately in a Pupils' Senate whose make-up in no way represented the student body's aggregate will as voiced in the May elections...
...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...
...After implying that all Eastern Europeans are now as free as the East Berliners he cautions readers against the possible resurrection of that loathsome prosopopia whose very name regiments all true liberals into a fraternity of neurosis, Senator Joseph McCarthy...
...How can a Pulitzer prize historian certify America as "the only atomic power in the world in 1950" when Russia had the bomb in August of 1949...
...For every crude solution he attempts to foist on you we will offer a serviceable alternative...
...Perhaps you will even read it...
...Needless to say these glib allegations and adumbrations are unaccompanied by any documentation at all — the book contains neither citations nor bibliography...
...5, 9:00 P.M...
...When he says "it is true" that Chinese intervention in the Korean War had Soviet support he is either purposely misleading his readers or attempting to be philosophical, for historians just do not know the extent of Soviet involvement in Korea...
...The author writes with an ineluctable swagger to his scholarly rhetoric which consistently appears wholly unwarranted...
...A historian of Schlesinger's repute owes his audi10 ence more than this...
...For instance, the nine symphonies of Beethoven are played at least once a month, and usually twice...
...Lacking any such cogency The Bitter Heritage relies soley on the imprimatur of Schlesinger's name, and without any documentation this is hardly enough...
...This is only an example, but in the opinion of this writer is representative of an average broadcast day of WFIU...
...Returning to the examples of stations WFLN or WQXR one sees a pattern of programming emerging...
...To Secretary McNamara he avers the dashing military tactic of holding our present positions in Vietnam...
...to 12 midnight WFIU broadcasts with an effective radiated power of 75,000 watts eminating from an original 10,000 watt power source...
...Yet even this does not represent all the music available for WFIU...
...The same pattern is seen with other familiar composers and their works...
...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...
...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...
...As most people know the serious music available today on phonograph records is immense...
...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...
...We will have a series of essays treating the real problems of the university, and we will offer a series of articles diagnosing the ailments of the "academy...
...R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr...
...The Bitter Heritage appears as a rather pitiful production from one of the nation's most prestigious historians...
...He tears a page from Talleyrand by illuminating Secretary Rusk to the devine possibilities of negotiation — this might well lead to a revolution in American foreign policy...
...That he bristles with solutions for unsolved problems will surprise no one — problems are his most creative product...
...From 1:30 P.M...
...As stated above the station devotes more than half of its broadcast time to serious or classical music...
...I should think Schlesinger would have more meticulous regard for the truth than he exhibits in this creation...
...Like a claymore mine and with as much finesse he fulminates advice in all directions...
...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...
...For every problem Sherlock detects we promise to expose its superficiality and offer a civilized cure...
...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...
...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...
...All that can withstand such a holocaust is the veracity of his thesis which towers above the debris...
...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...
Vol. 1 • September 1967 • No. 1
