FESTIVAL OF EMPIRE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 137, 10 June 1911, Page 11

FESTIVAL OF EMPIRE.

Dj. Charles Harriss. director of the' Empire, musical iestivals, cabled Mr. Hu°o Gorliu, his New Zealand representative, from Freniantle: — "Managed to catch Mamiora after conducting the opening ceremonies of the Festival of Jginpjre and pageant of London. I had the honour of being received afterwards hi audience by their Majesties the King and Queen. Our festivals have been a wfflderM success, and I am confident New Zealand will prove equally meritorious. I had a chat with your Prime Minister and Lady Ward in the King's ten-room on May 12th."

"{he King of Chorus Masters" is the $]$ bestowed upon Dr. Henry Coward, tonductpr of the Sheffield Choir. When »toy, Henry Coward was asked by his tnployer (Mr. George Wolstenholm) :— •TVeIL my boy, what is your pleasure?" fMnae's my pleasure, sir," "'Music! Yomuy as well go to the devil as learn was the discouraging response. JMipg daunted young Coward, by hook ot'tjcrcok, would be in evidence in the •tap Seek" of the Old Theatre Roya) it Srfield when an opera company 'tiitti the 'town. He learned all the was then in. vogue. His memory for erratic melodies was phenonienal, and a this way seed was sown for future larvest. He was given lessons on the nolin by his Sunday school teacher, Sir. John Pease, an excellent musician—the caly tuition in music Coward ever received. He became "fiddle mad," and fractised morning, noon, and night. The JDuth sang in the Chapel Choir. He joined a Tonic Sol-fa class, but soon became a teacher himself. His passion for reading musical books irritated those ja his home, and out of his scant pocket BOney he bought the candles which i vere a necessary aid to his secret! studies in his tiny bedroom. For four- j teen years Coward had to do with cut-1 toy, or the business life. At the age of twenty-one he decided to leave the Wnch and start ou a scholastic career —| «Ii in other words, like Cromwell, ''to j ns his head." Science fascinated him. Electricity, magnetism, sound, heat, physiology, geology, and the rest of the "logics, he simply devoured. He entered examinations just for the fun of the thing. A batch of certificates from Cambridge proves that he was by no Beans a smatterer in his knowledge of those pursuits. He became head master <>f a Board School in Sheffield. After wrenteen years of school-mastering, at % age of thirty-nine, he made up his W?d to "go into music." He obtained m Bachelor of Music at Oxford, and »s degree as Doctor of Music of the Mversity of Oxford in due course. But ft IST2 Dr. Coward formed the Sheffield | WW; the master-hand welding to- ' JSW a rhoir which, by leaps and WS*.?, was to revolutionise choral singttg in England, and which, to-day, is •Warned to be the greatest chorus in •k world. Xot alone is this the united »«irt of the United Kingdom, but in m two visits to Germany, which Dr. •km? Coward has made with his ■tonus choralists. the same opinion preWj> Mnongst the whole of the critical SSI- °-- that Besides con™*jjg the Sheffield Choir Dr. Coward «» T 4s fiora 10« to 1500 miles a week Waring the Leeds, Brantford, Hndders£Wi Newcastle, -mrt Glasgow Choral penes, of all of which he is the con.wtor. As an adjudicator his presence J| sought for in ail the choral coinposif ons 0? Ensland. and, as an authority Ca «Mh, h e has no living equal.