THEORY AND PRACTICE OF MUSIC.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1799, 27 April 1874, Page 3

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF MUSIC.

The Rev. John Crump lectured in the Wealeyan Church, Shortland, a few evenings ago on " The Theory and Practice of Music." The attendance was good. The lecturer distinguished between music as a science and as au art, showing that it was quite possible to make considerable progress in one with hardly any knowledge of the other. He expressed a fear that there was often great proficiency in the art, even when there was utter unacquaintedness with the simplest principles of the science. Referring to a former period, Mr _ Hullah said that " the scholastic music had no art, the popular music no science. There is too much truth in the! latter part of the complaint, as applied to j the present time. Extracts were read from Morley, showing that in his day (1597) ability to take part in home vocal muaic was very general, and from Oliphant, descriptive of the present century. The contrast was too clear, and by no means flattering to ourselves. There was, however, room for hope, for an old writer describing the singing of the Italians, says, "Before this (1659) they used to howi like wolves." It is, moreover, a fact that in England the last twenty years has witnessed wonderful progress in the art of music amonest the masses by a method I of instruction that combines efficiency in the practice with clear instruction in the principles of the science. Aluoh is now being done to redeem us from the charge of being a non-masical people, and the doctrine is more generally recognised that " skill in the practice of music is to be gained only by a clear understanding of its principles." The difference between musical sounds and noije was explained. The puffs of the steam engine, which are first slow and then rapid, would rosult in a fine bass note if tliey could be made with perfect regularity and sufficient rapidity. The wonderful structure of the musiaal scale was dwelt upon at some length. Diagrams and tables of figures were employed to explain the vibrations, and a ladder of intervals between the various tones of the scale based on the number of vibrations producing the various notes was- exhibited. This was spoken of as an accurate pictorial representation of intervals, and as important in practice as it is correct in theory. Although about fifty distinct tones are available for use, they are found to be repetitions of seven primiry tones. Familiarity with the character of this fawly of seven tones ou*ht not to be a difficult thing .to acquire, especially as they appear to have a distinct mental effect. Knowledge gained of these seven would practically be knovledge of the whole of the n>tes used, for they were the same, only more grave or more acute, as the case may be. Phe theory of fl its and slurps was explained by a simple and ingenious apparatus, which mide it plain that it was misleading to speak of one as. the natural key, when ail of the keys were in reality equally natural, and in fdct the sam i. Phe p>wer ofonepirricular note ia the ssale to determine the character of the other six, wjs shown by the audience giving the key tone and the lecturer reciting on the fifth or sixth in the scale. The importance of always recognising the tonic or key tone in vocil practice was insisted upon, ail surprise expressed that Mr llullahshould so doggidly persist in saerili ;iag it as an educational agent by changing its name as soon as ho pisses out of the (socallei) natural key. And this in spite of statistics of results connected wi'.h the moveable "Do" method, which ought to silence all opposition to it. This iias been amusingly referred to by the author of the lagoldsby Legends, in liis " Netley Abbey," thus:—"And see where the choir-mister walks ia the rear, with front severe and brow austere, now and then pinching a little boy's ear when he ohaunts the respjttse3 too late or too soon, or his do, re, mi, fa, sol, la's not quite in tune. Chen you know they'd a 'mweable do,' not a fixed one as now, and of course never knew how to set up a musical hullah-balloo." Passing on to consider music notation, the lecturer pointed to a diagram exhibiting music in threo different notations-the stave of five bars,- numerals, and the syllables, do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti. Many, iu speaking of music, refer either to musical instruments or music notation. Nothing could be moro confusing than this error. Musical notation was a thing altogether distinct from music itself; and so also were musical instruments, whether the piano, the organ, or that which is fiaest of all—the human voice. The two questions he hoped to be able to give a clear answer to in his lecture were—What is musio? and What is the best kind of musical notation to use? If the thing itself—music —ba really understood, the method of miking it by any kind of notation possible would be quietly deciphered. The miin thing was to teach music itself, and to employ such a notation as would most clearly ani thoroughly accomplish this. The stave of five bars was an ingenious and beautiful nnde of representing music, but calculated to mislead seriously those who were not grounded in the principles of the art. The employment of numerals was found inconvenient in practioe though simple in notation. The Tonic Solfa, he hid no hesitation in saying, was by far the best method of teaching voml musio. Phe after part of the lecture was devoted to setting fortn the supp >sed advantages of this system, amongst which the following were dwelt upon: —1. Phe absence of unnecessarily difficult terminology, and the adoption of a ourse which, in respect of the sharps and fiats, was dlear as the Queen's highway as co upared with the intricacies and perplexities of a Nov Zealand bush track. 2. Tae clearlyrecognised dominion of the tonic or keytone, however frequently it may change in a piece of music, and the relation of each note in the scale to that tone. 3. Pho intervals, whisli are of a peculiar character, aro pictorially represented. 1 ■tach tone, slowly given, has a peculiar mental effect, and therefire it becomes as lilfijult to proiuce an incorrect tone as it would be to mike a joyful announcement in nmrnful strains. " Phe Bind of Hope fnion, with no bias in favour of the system, found that of 11,003 singes in its concerts last year, 9.0J.3 s tug fnui solfas )f 100 school teachers-under the London School Board, all prefer the tonios>lfa method. In the higher departments of uusioil study, we have t) siov tw)thirds of the 415 certificates on the • Theory of Music' granted during tlu past six years by Mr Hullah at the Society of Arts eximinations, and 166 of tho 179 pertiQoites iu composition warded at the same examination by Mr .VLict'arren." Phe lecturer, at the o inclusion intimated that having procured the most recent books of instruction in 'his method from ICngland, ho would comoiencc a class iu the jhortlani Wesleyan Church on Thurs lay evening. A vote of thanks to the lecturer 'was proposed by Mr E. tiollerson, seconded by Me Williams, and carried byaoolftaaatioa.