Walkerville Collegiate Institute - Blue and White Yearbook (Windsor, Ontario Canada)

Page 37 text:

BLUE AND WHITE Association of Ideas Hector Berlioz, the great “Father of orchestration and ton e-col ou r”, used to become entranced and raised to an ex¬ traordinary pitch of enthusiasm by the tone qualities he employed. His “Auto- biography”, as well as his “Treatise on Instrumentation” give examples of this. Sometimes his own sense of humour is turned upon himself. In the “Autobio¬ graphy” he tells how he was going home dreaming of the wonderful effect of brass instruments in his first big orch¬ estral work, the overture “Les Francs- Juges”, and so rapt was he that he slip¬ ped and sprained his ankle. “For a long time afterwards,” he said, “that pass¬ age gave me pain in my ankle when I heard it; now it gives me a pain in my head.” Bayreuth. On May 22, 1872, Richard Wagner’s fifty-ninth birthday, the foundation- stone of his “Festival Playhouse” was laid at Bayreuth, a quiet Bavarian town off the main lines of traffic, yet large enough to be a place where people could gather. This had been the dream of Wagner’s life—to establish a home for his art free from the cramping condit¬ ions of the ordinary opera-house — a place where he might found a “fellow¬ ship of all the artists”, and draw to¬ gether a new and appreciative public. The auditorium, instead of being built in the old fashion of circular galleries, is fan-shaped, sloping upwards from the stage at the narrow end in regular tiers which reach, in a slight curve, from side to side of the building. This plan gives a maximum of seating room, and also has the advantage of giving to every spectator a clear view of the stage which is practically identical from every part of the house. The rows of doors on each side of the fan make it possible for the audience to reach their seats without a crush. The orchestra, placed between the stage and the auditorium is sunk below the level of both and is screened from view by steel shields. This has a very appreciable effect upon the tone of the orchestra; it softens the hi outlines of the phrase and blends the ; eI instruments into a sonorous whole. Th f c js result is a great beauty of tone with, however, some diminution of strength! a t The conductor behind the outer shield sees both the stage and his players, but e d the audience cannot see him, and this is j n perhaps one of the greatest advantage? cl, of the plan, for everyone who has seen tr an opera knows how annoying are the « conductor’s waving arms between the ec stalls and the stage. i The stage of the Bayreuth theatre si was planned to accommodate the most io elaborate scenery, machinery, lighting and other equipment according to the “] most modern ideas of the day before n electric power was in use. pi In 1876 this “Festapielhaus” was svd- t) ficiently finished for use, and the first ] Festival was the first performance of the whole of Wagner’s opera “The Ring of the Nibelungs’ which took place from August 13 to 17. PHYLLIS WRIGHT, V-B. d I ii On Taking Modern History j t When the question of whether or not f you should take Modern History pres- c ented itself to you, perhaps you remem¬ bered your Ancient History teacher ' s v warning “Don’t take Modern History c unless you are prepared to do a great g deal of work. It is without a doubt the c most difficult Upper School subject”, j However, nothing is worth having c that is not worth working for, and Mod f ern History is no exception to this rule. For, although it requires more reference t work, more concentration, and more ser- 1 ious study than the average subject, it j rewards the diligent student with an ex 1 eel lent foundation for future study or a i background which helps to clarify cur¬ rent events. j By studying the growth of a nation, its struggles, the mistakes of its lead¬ ers in the past, we are in a better pos¬ ition to understand the problems which confront the leading powers of the work to-day. We see time and time again that Page Thirty-two

Page 36 text:

BLUE AND WHITE We Westerners are fortunate in many ways, living as we do in our ultra-mod¬ ern land, but without doubt we miss something which is found in these old, exotic countries. We have speed, econ¬ omy and invention, but they have a thrilling beauty, an ancient charm, and at the close of day, peace. LOUISE ARMERDING, 4B. A Tight Spot My job is that of radio announcer for a very small station in a small town. I also serve as advertising manager, ass¬ istant engineer, telephone operator, stenographer and general repairman. In addition to all this, I run the phonograph turntable. One of my most unpleasant duties is sitting un all night, three rights a week, playing swing records which are requested. I am the fellow who says “This program comes to you by means of electrical transcription”— in other words, “We are going to play a bunch of old phonograph records for you”. There is another guy at the station. He is the owner and chief engineer, and does all my duties when I’m not there. We don’t have an easy time of it like announcers in large stations do. We can’t just sit around and announce every fifteen minutes. Whenever we aren’t an¬ nounci ng, we have to type letters, wea¬ ther reports, news, advertising script or else we have to solicit advertising. One evening we were carrying a lovely opera from New York. There must have been a bad storm raging along the way some place, because the telephone line carrying the program was blown down and the program went off. I got up to the mike and said: “Due to conditions beyond our control, we are forced to dis¬ continue this program. We now bring you a transcribed musical interlude.” That is the way they do it on all the big stations, so that’s how I had to say it. Most p°or l ' 1 would have understood me better if I h d sa ' d: “The wire can¬ ning this program broke, so we will play some records for you”. I got un and went over to the turn¬ table, put on a record, and turned it on. There was silence—absolute silence. I tried to shake it into action, but to no avail; the turntable just wouldn’t turn. There was nobody at the mike and I couldn’t leave the station in silence while I tried to fix the turntable motor, so I walked back, desperately trying to think of something to say. First I said “Due to more conditions beyond our control, we are not able to present the transcribed musical inter¬ lude”. Then I looked out of the window at the weather conditions and gave the audience a hastily- formed weather re¬ port.. Next, I looked at my watch and ■ave the audience the correct eastern standard time, but the trouble was that 1 think mv watch was five or ten min¬ utes fast. In desperation, I started dis¬ cussing the European situation, a sub¬ ject of wh’ch I know little or nothing. I was finally going to give up and tell the listeners exactly what happened, when I remembered that I had some commercials and news reports typed out. I left the mike for a momqpt to get them. For a seemingly endless ten min¬ utes, I read every bit of news—up-to- date news, state news, any kind of news, over the air. Then I began reading com¬ mercials. I plugged Lux soap, Luckies and Camels, and different brands of pat¬ ent medicines and home remedies all in the same breath. I think I was begin¬ ning to lose my loud and excited-sound¬ ing voice which all announcers have, in m der to rush their listeners into buying the product. Just then, I remembered the govern¬ ment restriction which prohibits adver¬ tising over three minutes in length. I decided to say goodnight to the audi¬ ence (if there was any audience left by this time), pull the main switch, and go home, when suddenly, the good old op¬ era came on again, loud and clear. Opera has always been the kind of music that I have hated most but I was certainly overjoyed to hear this one. I’m sure that I let out a “whew” that the mike picked up, but I didn’t have to worry about where the next words would come from. ART BLAKELY, 13B. Page Thirty one

Page 38 text:

BLUE AND WHITE 1 history repeats itself both in the prob¬ lems facing the governments and the de¬ cisions that are reached. We can see why war has been inevit¬ able in the past and is inevitable to-day. We can understand the growth of hatr¬ ed between nations which by their prox¬ imity and similar interests should be the closest of friends. It is not difficult to trace the desire for wealth, power and glory of leaders in the past and then compare them with the leaders of to¬ day, some of whom are motivated by similar interests and share like ambit¬ ions. Let us then change the warning to— “Do not take Modern History if you do not have any interest in what has hap¬ pened in the past, what will happen in the future and what is happening at the present time.” GWEN ROACH, 13C. Advice to the Bored No one ever needs to be bored. Bore¬ dom is only a sign of lack of ability to invent some way to entertain yourself. I have therefore endeavoured with much difficulty to gather together remedies for boredom while at such places as church, dining rooms and Latin classes. Dr R. U. Bored has given to us a very effective cure for boredom at church. He advises to pick from the con¬ gregation a large, over-grown man and concentrate on him throughout the ser¬ vice. Amazing results are obtained. He develops a great interest in his hands and feet, which he examines closely. The eminent doctor also gives us a more drastic method of ridding ourselves of boredom. This is to see how many times you may drop your collection without being asked to leave. However, the first method will be found the more dignified. To these I might add my humble sug¬ gestion, “one sleeping pill before leav¬ ing”. If you have the misfortune to have a small appetite, no doubt you have been attacked by boredomitis while waiting for the others to finish their meal. So, for your benefit. Dr. I Amusu has given us these remedies: pick up a full glass of water and turn it upside down over the table, counting the number of sec¬ onds needed for the water to leave the glass. Although this experiment may be repeated many times, strange to say, the results remain the same. Dr. Am¬ usu also recommends a very interesting guessing game: With your eyes firmly closed, kick your feet around the table and try to guess whose shins you en¬ counter. Strangely, this game rarely meets with the appreciation of the oth¬ ers present. About the Latin classes, I must ad¬ mit defeat. Not one successful method has yet been developed. But bear up, life cannot be all roses, and try to re¬ member the time when we can leave school and forget about the genitive plural. With this pleasant thought I must conclude, hoping I have helped you with these suggestions. If not, I would sug¬ gest the river! JAMES BARTLET 10A The United States and Imperialism “The United States has no imperial¬ istic policies”. This statement has been firmly maintained by all leading states¬ men of our neighbouring country since that country first came into being in 1783, when thirteen states bound them¬ selves together to form the framework of what is now one of the world’s lead¬ ing powers. On first considering that statement you may be quite willing to agree with it, and I cannot say that I would entire¬ ly disagree with you before I had the pleasure of delving into the history of the United States. First take a moment to consider, if the United States ha d no imperialistic ideas, how in the space of some hundred and fifty years has the country expanded from a group of thir¬ teen states huddled along the Atlantic seaboard to a great republic including not only forty spread across the North American continent from the Atlantic on the east to the Pacific on the west, and from the Gulf of Mexico in the Page Thirty three