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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, April 11, 1962
U.S.-Soviet Exchanges
An American cellist, Leslie Parnas of St. Louis, was named Sunday to compete in the final round of the international Tchaikovsky contest being held in Moscow. He seems to be following in the footsteps of Van Cliburn, the American pianist who won the competition in 1958.
This event is important as a symbol of programs which help the antagonists of the cold war to understand each other and lessen the tensions of the East-West conflict. Similar events involving visits of musicians, writers, scientists and other people who are not directly concerned with military and security matters aid in developing a more friendly attitude between the people of Russia and the United States.
EXCHANGE PROGRAMS of this type are
limited at present and as a result so is their effect. But what has been done is good on the whole and more exchanges would be desirable. The exhibitions that the United States and Russia exchanged portraying their countries is one example of an effort that should be continued.
Such exchanges are difficult due to the closely regulated nature of Soviet society, but the Kremlin has agreed to many in the past, especially when cold war tensions are relaxed.
Certainly they are beneficial to the United States, for the exchange of various groups helps to give the Soviet people a better understanding of the United States and its people. It is for this reason that the exchange programs the United States has with the Soviet Union are one of the few positive elements of U.S.-Soviet relations.
-William H. Mullins
Guest Editorial
Patience a Cold War Virtue
PATIENCE is not at the top of the list of American virtues. We like to get things done, one way or another, and proceed to something else.
Impatience and frustration, we suspect, are the principal factors underlying the long wrangle over the censorship of U.S. military leaders' speeches. Sen. Strom Thurmond (D-S.C.), who has led the attack on the State Department's blue penciling, reflects a widespread sinking feeling when he accuses the department of a "no-win" philosophy.
THERE IS no sign that Undersecretary George W. Ball got through to Thurmond or like minded critics with his denial, but what he had to say deserves attention. To interpret U.S. foreign policy as either "win" or "no win," said Ball, is oversimplification that "does not reflect the realities of today's world."
In the over-all view, he assured the Senate Preparedness Subcommittee, the State Department's aim is to advance the interests of the United States "so that a world of freedom may prevail against a world of Communist tyranny." This does not sound like a "no win" philosophy to us.
Galling though it may be to Sen. Thurmond or certain military men, it should be obvious that there are times when toning down fire-eating phrases is not only the better part of discretion but a calculated step toward "winning" the Cold
War. Ball cited examples of threatening talk toned down on the eve of important conferences bearing some hope of progress.
It is only natural for military men to talk in terms of military victory. That is what they are trained for. But such talk from top military figures can easily be interpreted as an overt threat, giving point to Russian charges of "warmongering" and frightening our friends or those we seek as friends.
THE COLD WAR cannot be won by threats, and it cannot be won by stumbling into a holocaust. The old military definitions of win and lose are not even applicable to the long struggle in which we are now engaged.
Some of the military men have grasped this idea even though others have not. We recall hearing a young Polaris submarine commander say: "If we ever have to fire these missiles, we have already lost."
Ball put it succinctly when he said, "The Cold War is not an adult game of cops and robbers. The conduct of foreign affairs is an intricate, subtle, changing, and always uncertain task."
He might have added that it is also frustrating in the extreme to be deprived of pat solutions and quick victories. But conquering that frustration and learning patience may be the biggest victory of all.
(From the March 5 Chicago Daily News)
Senior Pictures Program Criticized Editor:
I called Estes Studio yesterday for an appointment for a senior picture and to my dismay I was informed that the deadline for pictures was two weeks ago. I had seen no notice of this but to make sure I checked past issues of the Daily Kansan to last December 18. Not only was there no notice of a deadline, but there wasn't an Estes Studio advertisement of any kind.
1 THOUGHT this odd in light of the fact that Mr. Estes, in our conversation, had informed me that I was the only senior who didn't know about the deadline. If being a senior means possession of such intuitive knowledge, then maybe I'd better take this year over again.
Further investigation showed that only 800 out of 1700 seniors have had their pictures taken and that many, especially those who had been practice teaching the first half of this semester, were faced with the same dilemma. Therefore, I suggest that all seniors who weren't aware of the deadline and who would like to have a senior picture in the yearbook, call Mr. Estes as soon as possible in the hope that we can get a couple days' extension on the shutter action.
John F. Ryland
Caldwell senior
* *
Student Apathy Criticized Editor:
The charges made by Action against Vox and UP concerning their apathy and indecisiveness are essentially true. Not a single piece of legislation has come out of the ASC this year that had a profound effect upon the great majority of students.
... Letters ...
However, Vox and UP have not caused apathy, they are its result. The students could have long since had effective student government if they had taken an interest in these parties. As a result, campus politics is characterized by Greeks, who are interested primarily for the sake of "prestige," and independents, who are hardly interested at all.
Congratulations on the Brotherhood Award given the Daily Kansas by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. The recognition should demonstrate the value of journalism education, and the role a student newspaper can play in campus and community.
Kansan Congratulated Editor:
I WRITE, ALSO, so that you would know my interest in UDK is not solely critical. You might have felt this from my comments on the omission of any report of the Christian African attitude toward the Fortuguese repression in Angola, in a recent UDK story.
Jack Zinn Shawnee Mission freshman
* *
My concern for the whole story on matters of this type comes from the reporting of the Congo situation. The "other side"—the existence of very fine constructive activities by the church (African and foreign), the local government, and the United Nations (UNESCO)—is almost completely ignored. Instead, the activities which seem to attract
THIS KIND OF one-sided vision is often used in many situations, here and overseas, that include aspects of violence or grave injustice and involve strong vested interest. It is especially important that both eyes be used when dealing with events in the so-called under-developed nations.
Only giving all sides of a story can nurture true understanding of a situation, and aid effective solution of a problem.
the interest are the events demonstrating violence, confusion, ignorance, etc.
My very best wishes to the J-School, and the UDK.
Mona Millikan KU graduate and university employee
Dailu Hansan
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NEWS DEPARTMENT
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Managing Editor
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Bill Mullins Editorial Editor
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LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
"BY GEORGE, IT'S THOSE ARMY BOYS AGAIN — WE MUST BE GETTING ABOUND TO FINALS"
An Analysis
Music and Tradition
By Richard Byrum
The fourth annual symposium of contemporary American music began Monday with an address by Elliott Carter, this year's guest composer. The symposium is sponsored by the School of Fine Arts and will continue tonight and tomorrow night.
Mr. Carter is professor of music at Yale University. His compositions have brought him such awards as the Pulitzer prize, the prix de Rome, and the Sibelius Medal. The subject of Prof. Carter's address was "Tradition in American Music."
The precise extent to which traditional concepts influence seemingly new developments in any artistic expression is difficult to ascertain. It depends upon which aspects of the art form are to be considered. No idea is ever new of itself. It is always related in some way to what has gone before. A painting will usually have a frame and employ combinations of colors known to us all. A musical work will usually be performed before some sort of audience on some familiar instrument. Yet, within these curious bounds great departures from tradition have occurred.
PROF. CARTER defined tradition as an absorption of previous ideas. He further added that these must be comprehended before one can communicate new thoughts.
Prof. Carter's definition, when applied to music, concerns not only its media — harmony, melody, rhythm and instrumentation, but also the employment of this media to create an aesthetic experience for the listener.
Therefore, any sudden break with traditional concepts of the technical aspects of musical composition immediately opposes traditional aesthetic values. This was clearly brought out in Prof. Carter's
point that often in the past a radical departure from tradition met with vehement opposition from the listening public. Since music is constructed of sounds that may or may not be familiar, new styles that introduce quite unfamiliar combinations of sounds require time for the listening ear to adjust and evaluate. Certain composers in every period have felt that their music could not be appreciated during their own time. It was music for the future. With composers of high artistic insight this theory has proved to be true. Yet, not all music is eventually understood. The determining factor seems to be the degree to which the listener is conditioned to accept new techniques artistically employed to create a new aesthetic experience.
THE LAST POINT which Prof. Carter discussed relates the aesthetic principles of music to the contemporary American scene. He brought out the fact that the performance of serious music is not a part of our present social pattern. Only a scant number of works of the present or near past are being played. The gap between the styles of contemporary works and those represented in the average civic orchestra repertory is wide. Therefore this gradual adjustment to new departures from tradition is not easily possible. Even the most talented of today's American composers are having difficulty communicating their ideas. Hence they dwindle in number for want of understanding and encouragement.
It is with this feeling in mind that composers like Prof. Carter attach great value to institutions such as our music symposium. It allows them the much needed opportunity to explain and illustrate the aesthetic ideals of their music and how they may be understood in relationship to traditional patterns of development.
Worth Repeating
The plain truth is that, unbanned, "Tropic of Cancer" is not very interesting. In Paris, Miller made what he calls "the heroic descent to the very bowels of the earth, the dark and fearsome sojourn in the belly of the whale." He came up, however, not reborn like Jonah or Jesus, but the same old Brooklyn adolescent. "Art consists in going the full length," Miller writes. He could not be more wrong. Art may deal with the whole range of experience, but it consists in ordering that experience by means of form. It is thus a moral act, the replacing of disorder with order. It is in that sense, a want of craft, that "Tropic of Cancer" is an immoral book, not in the scenes on which it casts the beam of its dim little flashlight.—Stanley Edgar Hyman