Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

FILM EVALUATIONS bij L. C. Larson and Carolyn Guss Music Of Williamsburg (Colonial WilUamshurg,, Incorporated, Box 516. WiUiamshiirp., Virf:,wia) 29 mUuitea, Iftmm, .wiind, color, 1961. $260. Description Mtisic of WiUiam.shurg is an attempt to show that music was a leguhir part of the everyday life of the 18thcentiiry capital of Virginia. Using restored 18th-century Williamsburg as a setting for the vocal and instrumental performance of hundreds of adults and children, the film tells of the budding romance between a young sailor and the miller's pretty daughter. For 29 minutes the audience is treated to beautiful music that ranges from the simplest folk songs to that performed by a semi-professional instrumental ensemble and a professional opera company. Opening scenes show a young British sailor alternately singing and whistling a chantey as he trudges along a path from the James River to William.sburg. Before he reaches the market square he meets some Negro field workers and fishermen singing folk music— and the miller's daughter whom he ask.s. for directions. He passes by Wren Building Chapel and listens appreciatively as the students and faculty of the College of William and Mary sing "Psalm 150" from the Tate and Brady Psalm Book. He also hears a harpsichord teacher showing his pupil how to play Scarlatti's Sonata in D Major. Later in the market square, he sees the miller's daughter again. Together they watch the Fife and Drum Corps of Williamsburg Regiment parade down the street and look on at a group of children playing the Ring Game until the rain forces them to seek shelter. That night they attend a performance of The Beggar's Opera at the theatre. The film ends with the miller's daughter singing and humming to herself "When My Hero in Court Appears" from The Beggar's Opera and the chantey Johnny Todd as she dreams of her sailor's return to Williamsburg. Appraisal Technically, Music of Williamsburg is excellent. The color photography is beautiful and the acting seems almost professional. The .sound track, which is entirely music with no narration, also comes off very well. This film could be used in a core curriculum on the upper elementary and junior high school level since it very successfully ties in social studies with music. It could also be used as a convocation film to give viewers an idea of the place music occupied in the life of the Virginia colonists, and to develop in them an appreciation of America's musical and theatrical heritage. There aie several sequences in the film that merit attention. The harpsichord scene for one is interesting because it illustrates pedagogy probably typical of that time. Another interesting sequence is the demonstration of Benjamin Franklin's Glass Armonica, a musical instrument that probably very few people ever heard of. The evaluators were disappointed that there were not more close-ups of the instrument. The sequence of the Negro servants and field workers performing the Rooster-Hen, Dance was of particular interest because it is so remini.scent of the modern Carribean dances that are so popular today. A few of the evaluators thought that the love story was superficial. Music of Williamsburg is also available in a 40-minute version for $320. There are four more musical numbers, and five others are presented more completely than in the shorter version. —Herminia Barcelona Heredity And Adaptive Change: Mitosis (Encyclojiaedia Britannica Films, Inc., 1150 Wilmette Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois) 22 minutes, 16mm, sound, black and white and color, 1961. $130 and $260. Description Mitosis utilizes live-action photography, animation, cinephotomicrography and time lapse to record the highly organized cell division process called mitosis. The film begins with a time lapse sequence of growing plants and points out that growth, though basically the same in all plants and animals, is nowhere more dramatically portrayed than in the development of an embryo. A chicken is used to illustrate the grow th of an embryo from fertilization until the time of hatching on the 21st da\-. The analogy of this development to that of the human being is referred to. Rabbit cells developing from a single fertilized egg are seen by cinephotomicrography as they divide, emphasizing that cells, the basic units of all life, are responsible for growth and development through their reproduction by this cell division. Through animation the film explains that as the embryo continues its development the newly formed cells then begin to grow until they reach matmit) . Throughout this growth and From luiriipipr lo Kanilcl. t)ic sdiinils liiid music cil i oloriKil \ ir);iiiia arc in il mailf in the IRlh-cpiUiiry surroundings of W illiainsburg, Virginia. I ill 322 Educational Screen and Aldiovisual Guide — June, 1962