Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

in which we, as a college, with the help of the National Council of Music, should exert ourselves:- 1. The training of conductors and teachers. 2. The establishment of local orchestras. 3. The setting up .of study circles and musical clubs in as many towns and villages as possible. And within the College itself:— The extension and development of work already begun including the expansion of our choral and orchestral concerts into a two or three days musical festival. E. T. Davibs, University College. Director of Music. Bangor. A "Pagan" Looks at Puritanism." By Ithel Davies, B.A. PEOPLE are wont to picture the rising generation of Welshmen as Paganiaid y Colegau." Whether it be an appropriate appellation is not within the purview of this disquisition to inquire. One thing is obvious -the young Wales of to-day has discovered in life simpler human values. This discovery is not in the nature of a reaction from Puritanism and what remains of it in our day, as we shall have occasion to point out later on. The new disposi- tion is permeating the entire social constitution of the whole nation. Comparing the literature of to-day with that of earlier generations, we realise the nature of the "paganism" which has crept in upon us. In and through all we cannot help noticing the extensive operations of the psychic force in constant activity. It assumes different forms, it invents new outlets, and finds common interpretation in the life-history of successive generations of men. The swing of the pendulum is an intel- lectual fiction, which one is surprised to see per- sisting. The apparent antithesis between the life-expressions of one age and that of another does suggest to the superficial observer some- thing in the nature of reaction. How far the element of reaction is contained in any subsequent expression of thoughts and actions is a question which might well invite investigation. Our difficulties and perplexities arise from an extremely erroneous notion that life-in the sense of actual existence,-is a ceaseless process of action and reaction. Let us disabuse our minds as to the value of such a terminology. If we One feature will gladden the hearts of all thoughtful readers in the above report. It is the music made and heard by the College in the College and by the College extra-murally that will count, and tend musically to nourish the whole country, and make that imaginary musical map look both healthy and interesting. Some time ago Sir Hugh Allen pointed out, in regard to the existent musical "irrigation" of London, that whether we wish it or no, our child- ren are being musically educated by the barrel- organs to which they dance and by the bands of the cinemas they frequent. Our chief care is surely to keep the supply of music made and heard plentiful and pure wherever young people are happily congregated but above all in our schools and colleges. essay to define life in the terms of moves and countermoves, action and reaction, we shall inevitably find ourselves lodged securely in eternal eddies from which there is no escape. Such a notion assumes more than the facts and experi- ence of life reveal, and it might easily assume less. On the view, which one must accept, that everything comprised in the universe is organic to the whole, a mere process of action and re- action would not tend to the preservation of the universe in any progressive and fruitful sense. The conception springs from the cultivated pugilism of the historical traditions of man. It is the outcome not of the heresy of nature but of the orthodoxy of the inkpot. The significance of the present tendencies in Wales can be measured rightly only in so far as we are able to accord them a correct historical setting. Puritanism looms large on the horizon of history chiefly because our history text-books will have it so. The true nature of the contri- bution made by Puritanism to the cultivation and development of some of the supposed virtues attributed to its rise and influence in this country is not easily gauged. What it succeeded in conjuring up from the complexionless religiosity of the period of its strength and virility is negli- gible. Had it not been for the fact that it was not a reaction from the symbolism and exter- nalities of the orthodox religion, one woufd despair at the thought of it. But it was some- thing more potent and hopeful, which opened up new avenues of thought and adventure, making it possible for future generations to do more than Puritanism ever set out to accomplish. Such a value it possesses in common with all past efforts of men. Its ruthlessly positive character stamped it immediately as a phase of life which had been overlooked until the Seekers made their quest for truth and goodness a sober matter. The emerg- ence from the shell-like religion of the orthodox church was inevitable and essential for self-