Weir Discussions

The Weir House Discussions Group seems to be carrying on in its usual diverting vein. One Sunday evening brought forth a groat crowd (not wholly due to an impromptu swing session), and Tommy Young, Training College music lecturer, convened in a most interesting style on music and its modern aspects. He illustrated the changing aims of the composers through the generations by analogy with art, passing from the achitectural design and form of Bach and the classical painters, to the [unclear: romanticism] of Chopin, Greig, and Schumann, with their counterparts. The impressionist development tended to be more subjective to convey the personal mood and feelings summed up by a scene rather than a photo-graphic record. Cézanne and Van Gogh are well-known painters of this type, and their technique is reflected in the music of Debussy, Ravel, and others.

The speaker made clear his points by slewing a chair round and attacking the Common Room piano (or, move accurately, the parts of it that still work), by handing round prints from the various schools of painting, and by gramophone records of Debussy and Ravel. Mr. Young conduced on microphonality and the extremists, exhibited a few amusing prints, and had played an octet by Bartok (see Traffic Jam effects) and a violin duo in sixth tones.

The informality of these evenings invites discussion, and the various jazz addicts of the house were quick to respond.

All persons, including the lecturer, ultimately agreed that none have the light to judge jazz and classics by the name standards, or to deny the: latter its place in modern life; not, however, until Glen Miller, the immortal Artie, and the Bobcats had borne superabundant witness.

In the end Weir settled down to Swing Session, Part III, and the evening closed amid the strident glory of hot trumpets, wailing clari's, and the eight bar beat.

A Great Show! Thank you, Tommy!