Page 12 University Daily Kansan Friday. Nov. 11, 1960
Students Resurrect Middle Ages Melodies
By Virginia Mathews
4
The haunting sounds of ancient musical instruments echo through Murphy Hall as music history workshop students recreate music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods. They play replicas of the ancient instruments such as the rebec, recorder, shawn, and lute. These instruments are as peculiar in shape as in sound.
Howard E. Smither, associate professor of music history, said the students had just started using the old instruments this year. Milton Steinhardt, associate professor of music history, bought the instruments last year while he was in Europe.
"WE ARE DOING what I suppose many medieval musicians did, try it out and see what it sounds like. But they knew more about the instruments than we do," Professor Smither said.
THE ENDOWMENT ASSN. furnished the money to start the collection. The instruments cannot be insured because of their rarity, and difficulty of replacement according to Prof. Smither.
Dwain Jenista, Caldwell senior, said that the course was a fine one and should be required of all students. The class is hilarious.
"We seldom play in tune which adds to the enjoyment. We can blame the instruments instead of the players," Jenisa said.
"Val Petrus and I tried to audition for band," he said, "but they did not want our instruments. Val was playing the zink (a straight wooden trumpet) and I was playing the cromorne (a wooden curved, reed instrument used in the Middle Ages). The secretary shooed us out."
THE WORKSHOP has 18 of these replicas based on the Berlin Collection of Otto Steinkoph. Most of the instruments were used in the Middle Ages through the Renaissance, and some in the Baroque period.
ALL THE INSTRUMENTS are wooden. The cromorne looks like the letter "J." The shawm, similar to the oboe or bassoon, was used in tower (outdoor) music and in town bands. The bass shawm needs two men to hold it and a third to play it.
Royal Courts liked to be entertained by recorder music. Sometimes there were 50 to 60 in one court. The instrument resembles a flute, but it is straight like a clarinet. They are still found in the rural areas of Europe and are coming back into vogue.
The forerunner of the brass instruments, the zink, was used longer than the others. It accompanied vocal groups and was used in church. The zink is a straight trumpet.
One of the forerunners of the violin was the viola de Gamba. It differs from the violin in the number of strings and it has finger frets (the steel bands across the finger board as our modern guitar has).
"EVERYBODY HAD a lute in the sixteenth century," Annette Voth, Clarinda, Iowa, senior, said.
Miss Voth said:
"It is comparable to the modern day popularity of the piano. The lute is a pear-shaped instrument with a broken neck. I like the lute. It is difficult to play, but such delightful music is written for it, such as sixteenth century English lute songs. Italy, Germany, and various other European countries wrote songs for the lute."
THE CLAVICHORD is the only keyboard instrument on which a vibrato can be achieved by just moving one key. It is similar to the piano, but with a softer harp-like sound. The drawing rooms were the main place for these instruments since dainty, delicate airs were played on them.
"The harpsicord which we have now is much heavier than the old time harpsicords," Ronald M. Barnes, instructor of music history, said. "At one time two or three men could move a harpsicord. It takes 12 men to move ours. It cannot be shoved or the legs would be broken."
'Chalkie' to Miss Game
"Chalkie," one of the first University of Kansas mascots used in a Homecoming game, has been lost.
No one seems to know about or be able to locate the Central American toucan which served as an imitation of the KU Jayhawk at all University and athletic functions in the late 1920's.
After Chalkie's death in the early part of the 1928 school year, the bird was stuffed and continued to represent the school at football games.
Thomas Watts Caffey, a member of Pi Upsilon fraternity — which later merged with Delta Upsilon — took the bird to the fraternity house the next year.
After that, no one seems to know what happened to the valuable symbol of KU tradition. Dr. Raymond Hall, director of the Museum of Natural History, said he did not know that such a mascot had existed and that there were no records in the museum about the bird or its present location.
A young man was found leaning, panic-stricken, against the statue in front of Green Hall. Disheveled appearance, glasses askew and books scattered about his feet indicated he was the latest to be threatened by KU's most violent plague.
Imported Cars Spell Trouble
Never has Oread seen so many of the low-slung autos. It was only a few years ago they were the object of curiosity. Last year they were numerous, to be sure, but not like this year. Maybe summer is the mating season for the imports.
The young man had been victimized by KU's major menace; the sports car.
By Frank Morgan
"??&#|%*" he said, regaining his composure. He gathered up his books, smoothed his hair, straightened his glasses, crossed to the grass beside the sidewalk and then hurried on down Javawk Boulevard.
Or perhaps they have colonies set to invade communities with ideal climate. Could be those first ones we saw were in reality the advance scouts who returned to the nest and led the colony back.
In any case—they are a menace.
The main problem they cause is due to their size. It is nearly impossible to see them coming. Dodging the Detroit type when crossing streets is dangerous but when a couple of big ones are stealthily followed by the foreign species, calamity prevails.
And the onslaught is bound to continue. The little bugs are becoming standard equipment for KU students. Gone are the days when the Model-A was the most coveted transportation on campuses across the nation. Now the young student works and saves all summer to make the down payment on the old box-type MG with the right-hand-side steering wheel. But now, even these symbolize that the owner aspires to better things; he just can't afford them.
A solution is needed. The coming boom in enrollment means a boom in the bugs. The poorest kin in the transportation family, the venerable bicycle, is increasing in number. What can be done?
Let's leave the streets to the big cars. Let's turn the sidewalks over to the sports cars. The bicycles get the white line down the middle of the road.
That takes care of everything but the people.
They get the grass.
the campus will never look the same but this is the "New Era."
Midget policemen at every cross-walk . . . stoplights in front of Wattins and Strong. . . "No Stopping or Standing" signs on all the laws
Or Standing, signs on all the lawns.
It's the only way.
Nancy Kinter May Go to N.Y.
By Linda Swander
The official representative from KU to the Mademoiselle magazine lacks no experience in fashion design, merchandising and modeling.
Nancy Kinter, St. Louis, Mo., senior and apparel merchandising major has been on Fashion Boards for stores and manufacturers since she was a junior in high school.
Nancv Kinter
During high school Miss Kinter served on the Thermo-Jac Fashion
Person to Person Chisenhall-Chisenhall
MEMPHIS, Tenn. —(UPI) —Imagine Fred Chisenhall's surprise when he telephoned the home of Andrew Florida, Osceola, Ark., millionaire, and a secretary answered, saying "this is Mrs. Chisenhall."
For a moment, the Chisenhall of Memphis couldn't speak. He was so surprised to find another Chisenhall—not his relative.
Fred Chisenhall is a newsman for the Press-Scimitar here. The Arkansas Chisenhall is an insurance man whose works for Florida.
Board. Thermo-Jac manufacturers attempted to get a cross-section of high school girls throughout the United States who were interested in representing their vicinity.
LAST SUMMER Miss Kinter was one of eight college women in the U.S. selected for the Stix, Baer and Fuller Fashion Board in St. Louis, Mo. More than 400 women filed applications and the fashion board was selected on their poise, interest and past experience. They were given a two-week training period comparable to that given a young buyer.
As a member of the fashion board Miss Kinter counseled freshman girls on college clothes, sorority and dormitory living and all other aspects of college life. The fashion representatives also worked as retail merchandisers and modeled the latest New York fashions. Miss Kinter had worked for Stix, Baer and Fuller the three previous summers as a fashion coordinator.
AS THE MADEMOISELE representative Miss Kinter will contribute monthly articles to the magazine. She is eligible for a trip to New York in June as a guest editor of Mademoiselle. The guest editorship is based on the representatives achievements on her college campus and the contributions she has made to the magazine.
Miss Kinter is also chairman of the KU fashion board which is sponsored jointly by Mademoiselle and the Jay Shoppe. The board consists of seven other KU women. Miss Kinter will spend from 4 to 6 hours a week working with the Jay Shoppe in retail selling, coordination of campus fashions with Mademoiselle's, and fashion show plans.
“KU is very fortunate to have a Mademoiselle Fashion Board. We are one of the few schools represented in the Midwest. Most of the fashion boards are on campuses on the east and west coasts,” Miss Kinter said.
MISS KINTER is a member of Gamma Phi Beta sorority; Gamma Alpha Chi, professional advertising fraternity for women; Home Economics Club; Senior Planning Committee, and secretary of the KU Young Republicans. She is enrolled in Clothing, Advertising Layout, Retailing, Aesthetics, Sociology and Geology this semester.
After graduation in June Miss Kinter would like to become a women's ready-to-wear buyer.
Soviet Students Scorn Work, Flunk
By United Press International
While the United States is having difficulty housing all of its students, the Soviet Union is having difficulty getting students.
The Institute for the Study of the U.S.S.R., in a recent bulletin, said students are flanking out and becoming disinterested in higher education since the initiation of the Soviet School Reform.
(The Institute for the Study of the U.S.S.R. is a free corporation of scholars who have left the Soviet
Typewriters Convert Words Into Type
TOKYO —(UPI)— A voice typewriter claimed to be without equal in efficiency was unveiled recently before a group of members of the World Acoustic Society visiting Japan.
The new electronic typewriter, developed by scientists at Kyoto University, converted spoken Japanese words into printed form.
Clean-up Delayed
STEPHENVILLE, Tex. —(UPI)—A project to improve the appearance of Stephenville streets was delayed when a newly purchased street sweeper was shipped to Kansas by mistake.
A bad neighbour is as great a misfortune as a good one is a great blessing.—Hesiod.
Union. They publish a bulletin called Soviet Affairs Analysis Service.)
THE SCHOOL REFORM in the U.S.S.R. began last year. The reform program calls for compulsory education from ages 7 to 14 with polytechnical training.
After this period, all young people are required to do manual work either in industry or in agriculture. At the same time, the students are expected to pass through the second stage of their secondary schooling.
In addition to evening schools for working and rural youth, 11-year schools, including ages 7 to 18, are to provide trade training for those who, although they are still attending school, are at work in industry or agriculture.
The Institute said:
The amount of compulsory training for industry is so great in the senior grades of some schools that insufficient time is left for the academic program, the Institute said.
ONLY STUDENTS who have done at least two years of this kind of work are to be admitted to the higher educational institutions.
The Institute, said Khrushchev himself, has been forced to admit that young people were adopting a contemptuous attitude toward manual work, that there were tendencies among them to avoid work and to live at the expense of parents, and that a lack of principles and of ideal and cases of "nihilism" existed.
"DURING RECENT months there have been more and more reports in the Soviet pedagogical press of young people throwing their studies overboard because they saw no purpose in carrying on academic work which offers no prospects under such difficult conditions and entails enormous sacrifice.
"It is not only the night school that is losing students. The press notes that all over the country many young people are leaving the eight-year schools which provide the first stage of secondary education."
In summarizing the situation of education in the U.S.S.R., the Institute said:
"The first year of the Soviet education reform caused many students to abandon their studies, made it much harder for them to master their academic curricula, and disrupted the attempt to build up a system of polytechnical education and of vocational training in general.
"THE MOST IMPORTANT realization which emerged during the first year of the reform was that the rule to admit no one to higher education who has not had two years of 'manual labor' behind him is unrealistic and hampers the task of training specialists.
"It is for this reason that the Soviet leaders — without officially admitting their error — have backtracked in their efforts to patch up the Soviet education system."