SINGERS AND PLAYERS FROM THE MAGAZINES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 128, 30 May 1914, Page 14

SINGERS AND PLAYERS FROM THE MAGAZINES.

London musical critic were somewhat puzzled as to what attitude to adopt with regard io Herr Arnold Schoitberg,' j the Austrian composer, when he appeared at the Queen's Hall se-.eral inontihs ago to conduct five orchestral, j pieces of his own composition. He wan; the first of the Futurist composers heard in London, mid though, according to accepted musical standards, most of his I work is an absolcte negation of melody, i the critics, knowing that Sclionberg is j held in high esteem by musicians like jM. Ferruccio Busoni ami M. Igor Stravinsky, dealt lightly with 'him. They were afraid to condemn the now development in music as whole-heartedly as Wagner had 'been condemned by the critics ief 'his day. But there- is no doubt about the attitude of ihe London musical critics towards the Futurist music of M. Leo Ornslein. v Russian composer of nineteen years, who has given two pianoforte recitals in London. It is many years since there has appeared in the London press sin-h a vigorous chorus of condemnation as his performances evoked, flis music was likened by the "Morning Tost" to that of an infant hammering thp notPS of the piano with its lists while a eat walked up and down the keyboard. The "Times'' declared that a housemaid with a duster could have got similar music out, of the piano, and the "Daily Mail" said that the young composer assaulted the instrument "with every appearance of concentrated hatred." Al ihe second recital the audience boohed, hissed and groaned in order to express iis feelings. No words can convey an a.curaie ielea, of ewheit _M. (Irnstcin's music is like, but his own words suggest its source. "I thought I had gone mad myself, when one morning 1 woke up hearing most curious chords." he wrote in an explanatory article in a l_ondon paepcr. "They were -o extraordinary that I was completely biifllcil. At first they were like dreadful discords, but they kept on coming, and after four months they seonipd no more dreadful, but the most natural sounds. I realised that my brain -and emotions had gor_r faster lban my ear they were not ready lo grasp what my feelings and my brain conceived. That is what is thp matter with those who listen to my music" It would l.c difficult t" say how many musical works were written by Sipior Tito Mattei. byt ihe was wining for about sixty-five years, and must have been a very prolific composer. Twentyeight .pages a-rc devoted to him in the British Miiesoiim's music catalogue, and even 1-1)0-0 cover only tlic items published between 186T> and 1911. Mattei. tuneful and somewhat Ycrdi-like opera "Maria di Claud" was originally produced n't a private trial performance at St. Ooorge's Hall in July. 1577, and in November and December. 1880, it had four performances in an Italian opera season at Her Majesty's, at cheap prices, "evening dress entirely dispensed with." Afterwards Mattei wrote to the "Times" to express his gratitude for the reccp tion accorded his work and to explain that it was commenced fourteen years ago and completed in the year ISGB, before the production in this country of "Aida," ''Carmen," and the work 3oi Richard Wagner. It was written in conformity with what was the accepted Italian model at the time of its inception. Miss Amy Murphy, the well known Dunedin vocalist, who has bepn resident in Sydney for sonic time, has joinpd the George Willoughby American Musical Comedy Company, and made her lirst appearance in Sydney in the musical play" The Mayor of Tokyo.'' Miss -Murphy has been engaged 'for the NewZealand lour, which will take place in the course of the next two mouths. Almost the whole of the "excitement" in the concert world, says the critic of the "London Daily Telegraph '' has been produced by the variety of so-called "Futurist" music that has been played. There has been an epidemic, and while at all performances there have been signs of disapproval from certain sections of the public, yet the music has proved attractive, in one sense of tho word, to a very remarkable degree. Thus when Scriabinc's "Prometheus" was revived, the composer himself being at the pianoforte, there was a certain amount of hissing in the gallery. When, however, Sk'riabine. gave two pianoforte recitals of his own compositions tho audiences seempd to be disappointed that there were not the same "thrills" as in the -orchestral work. 15ut at his most ''extravagant" Scriabine was a child in comparison with Leo Ornstein, a young Russian composer, who crowded to repletion a concert room on two occasions by the sheer wealth and originality of bis cacophony. Nothing at all like it, in so "advanced" a form at least, has ever been hpard herp before: yet the audience remained till the end, hypnotised as a rabbit hy a -nake. It was a fearful and wonderful thing, the music and the playing of it. and perhaps the most remarkable part of the matter is that after the composer-pianist's curious sue- ' cess, he at length found a publisher, it is said, for the first time, to publish his music. It will make an interesting study on paper. Put the past is dead, however "exciting" some ot it may have been, for the moment. From time to time suggestions arc made through the cohimns of the daily paepcr.. that the music played at. the Town Hall organ recitals .should be less "classical" and more popular. The. | fact that the Wellington City Council I had actually discussed such a proposal i h-u.s stimulated a '\Svdncy Bulletin" contributor to a poetical a inbreak : — -. Goo.l-.vp lei Beethoven and 'P.rahms. To Schumann nnd Selmhert n.s well. : Such music as theirs merely charms, I It. hasn't a story to tcii, i.Vi.d tbe councillors liold th.t the time is now ripe. i I'nr the citizens' ears tn he tickled with I tripe. i 'It is popular loons ttia t w« need. Toons as people can whistle and hum," And the councillors all are ujrreed. ! That the people In hundreds will come llf the orir.nisl plnved Just v :ani»o or two, 'Or "M:i llonei. Ma 11./nev. I loves yer. i 1 Ou." I I A two-step wonld draw su.-h ii crowd, j As would pncli the Town Hull to the door, | And the orjepin would do itself proud, I Ami the people yell madly •_.B'OTP." If Mozart were cut. and tli.-v heard In ilis stead. ■Tim 1>,...!.m didn't know that his father was dead." j And Bottle*. Tti'l and his tart. r.,uhl join in the catchy refrain. lOf "Liza, yer've collared m.- ji-t!" I Or "Crikey. I've ~ o t such :i pain'" - While sotnethins like this would so down with the wowsers: , "<"' >lorhpr. I've busted fhe .ea- of niy Trousers!'' Of Mendelssohn, '.hopiii. and «•„',. C'f Nocturne and soft serenade. Th.- people have now haet too much. The .-it.-rt i-nncerrin.-i eind meiuh-o-ririin « . I KTSCOBIN 1 NZ -

NOVEL IDEAS IN ROAD MAKING. Puis are fhe bane of country roads, and one farmer lias experimented unta he has found a way to eliminate then. The idea is simply to fill the ruts of s prairie wagon road with concrete. 'Th, tilling should tic 4 or f>in thick, and about .Sin wide on top. the surface beino hollowed out about l!in deep for vchicis wheels. It is pasy to drive over, as th« wheels follow the tracks "with first hv tent." and four ypurs' wear on the «. pcrimonuil roads built by the originat ot show no wear nor corrosion. The cost is given at f 100 per mile, and the roadi are not only free-driving in wet weather but arc almost dustless in dry condition —"Popular Mechanics Magazine."

THE TOBACCO HABIT.

All sort.sot nostrums have been proposed and tried for the purpose of cmiru: the excessive craving for tobacoa, but tho rcKuli-8 of their administration 'have been for the most part very unrar. tain. A remedy of a different order haj been patented in the shape of a turn lock for tobacco boxes. The victim ol thp habit can adjust the torture ot deprivation to suit his moral and physical limitations. Having made up 4iis miad what is the longest period -that he can abstain from the weed, lie sets tie gauge on the .box and waits for tthe expiration of the pre-dcteTmined interval of time before lie .takes a fresh piw The .inventor, who appears to speai feelingly on the subject, recommeuli suffprers from the nicotine ihaibit to make the early 'intervals very short— "Tlip Family Doctor."

FOOD REFORM.

The normal, healthy man quite rightly docs not think much about what he eats so long as it tastes fairly good aid there is plenty of it. There are reasons, •however, why even he should take an interest in the question of diet reform— a question which has become so acute of late years. The great movement o! scientific research and social study ha.a both made perfectly clear the fact that the majority of the people arc not as healthy and as efficient as they iaight be, and one of the root causes of tins is that they do not obtain sufficient food, or that they do not obtain the right kind of food. The last statement applies not only to the poorer classes, bui also, as has been fully shown by Chittenden, Ilindhede, and Others in recent years, the classes with ample menu The great increase in the frequency ol appendicitis, from a few scattered cases fifty years ago to the thouesands of the present day; the persistence of the cancer plague; the continued proportionate increase in the number of mentally defective; all call for an investigation 01, amongst other things, the food from which the nation builds up its flesh and blood. —A. G. tfimmins, in "Good Health."'

THE TOP nAT.

Touching faith was once universal in the Top Hat as the "gentlemanly" and the "right" thing- for the London -wear of every responsible person, from a Cabinet Minister to a War Office clerk, says the ''Saturday Review." _ Then was a time when a stranger calling Bl smart hotel or a private house in a bowler would be watched with unfriendly interest; in a good hat -he iii secure from suspicion of designs *o_ umbrellas or overcoats. In the cityfte top hat implied integrity, stability, mysterious command of specie. The Top Hat Mind, in its various grades, never wavered in its faith. It took out Us insurance policies*, banked its money, conducted its speculations, married its daughters in a spirit of trust in the morally antiseptic influence of the top hat. It went on a railway journey with the enrorc confidence because it Mir the stationmaster at Paddington -wearing a top hat with the gravity of a mail with the weight of many engines on hi* mind. Xo stateesmen would have dared to flout public opinion by a flippant exhibition of straw or felt Mr.- Gladstone's trousers might tie baggy and not too new. That was of little consequence. But the spell would have been broken »t > once had he waUced down to the House of Commons in a bowler and a shon jacket. It cannot even be imaginedAnd think of it, weep over it—the Prime Minister this week, last week, and til week before, has 'been enap-sh.ott._d in » soft felt!

GLOOMY SCOTTISH BALLADS.

Tn an article on "The Ballad, Englni and Scotch." in the "Contemporary Review," E. R. Montague observes:-In comparing the Scof-Ch and Engha ballads one is impressed by the novtt and gloom of the former, their superiority in expressing etr< emotion "of any kind, and, as Jit. Andrew Lang has pointed out, in a»* mg with the supernatural" Sroteh stories of the supernatural, Mr. Mo* ta-ffue goes ou to say. contain an ecuness which is seldom found in the English. Sometimes the horror is not M nruch due to the supernatural as to Nature herself: to some description ot the .sea, or desolatp landscape, as a i the terrible ballad of the "Twa Corbies with its concluding lines:— "O'er his white hones when they are o»i» .tic wind sail blaw for evermair. Sometimes, however, the Scotch lore for the supernatural takes a kindlier form, and instead of returned spinti with gruesome tale of the grave, we have eltin ladies riding milk-white steisels. and in place of ** mf ?f° aspects of nature, mystic woods. _ ThJJ last phase is so eminently Celtic m i spirit that it seems difficult to account I for it in the Scotch ballads, unless it M» ! been borrowed from the Gaels. Ju« las in Art and Literature ugliness »M I fear can be blended together into a a» tinct element, tehe grotesque, so ne" i there, is a distinct element but compounded of beauty and fear. Vte i&« something of it in 'The Demon Lover, but one of the finest examples a » "Thomas the Rhymer." Thomas ffl«» the "Queen of fair Elfland," who eti> him ride behind her. and he forgets UJ world for seven years. The theme «*» ;i* common enough: it is only the WJ j 'mem. which is unique. The T«*»* ! version is simply \ • nus and TaM ! hatrser. but here we -cc '<«* i Tamthaa-sor through that *fl| i glamour, that delicate gossamer «S •! which the Celts can weave «o weD. Thomas t.he Rhymer lights down after* time and the Qneen "f fair Elfland shows him tilree roads, one that win" about t.he fernie brae, leading to :» [ Elfland " ■-.•. they mdc on an-l further on. Aad tTW wadei thro' rivers aboon t» knee. __, 4nd they saw neither sun ne.- moon, Itiit they heard rhe roaring of the**. T he fa,'" has fonnd one of its m»l beautiful expressions in Keats y" Dame sans Mem." where muci ot I spirit of the ballad has been caught.