THE WORLD OF MUSIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 77, 31 March 1928, Page 8 (Supplement)

THE WORLD OF MUSIC.

GOSSIP OF THE PLATFORM. FROM FAR. AND NEAR.

(By ORPHEUS.)

The Municipal Band will shortly be performing several Wagner numbers, which it has not attempted before. Among these are selections from Siegfried, Gotterdammerung, Tristan and Isolde, Siegfried's Death and Parsifal prelude to which has been done previously). They will also be playing, at some time in the near future, the first movement from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and the Leonora Overture No.

"The Musical Times," talking about opera, says that "it is high time to drop foolish talk about opera being the highest of musical forms, and a test of musical culture. Manchester bothers itself very little about opera, yet is there a more musical city in England? Are ?« e Continent many more musican llie musician who is not an opera fan will continue to drop in at the opera house, either in an indulgent mood or because of his interest in the hitherto insoluble problems of the form. But when he wante its two prime elements, music and drama, at their best, he will go to the concert hall and the theatre, and take them both neat."

The outstanding items in the Muniuco'Vcort next Wednesday evening- will be the overture "Academic Festival by Brahms; the Andante con moto and Allegro un poco agitato, from endelssohn s 'Scotch Symphony"; and 1 erey Grainger's arrangement of the old Londonderry" air, and also the same composer s "Shepherd's Hey." The Shepherd's Hey" is a merry jingling ij " 9e( * ky the Morris dancers of old and «ven to some extent to-day. Ihe selection "Reminiscences of Wales '' by Godfrey, should provide some stirrin'" moments. If great opportunities for nearmg good music could make a community musical, the people of Auckland should be the most musical in the Dominion.

It wculd be Infinitely better, both for their own sake and their listeners, if many of the young singers who infest our suburban drawingroonis were to confine their vocal activities to choral work. Unfortunately teachers of music have a custom of warning their pupils (promising or otherwise) against "spoiling their voices" by joining choral societies and glee clubs. The reason is of course, obvious: tho young songsters might discover, upon joining such a society, that voice-culture was more or less unnecessary, and cease taking lessons. As a consequence, the slate-pencil soprano, and the young tenor with a death-rattle, are persuaded that vigorous choral work will take the polish off their voices, and they reserve their efforts for the parlour. This is what Sir Henry Wood says about it:—'-Some vocal teachers have a wonderful, an unlimited professional jargon and a stream of incessant flattery which they turn on to possible pupils. They will tell them, for instance, that every top note is worth five pounds. I myself was told this by one of my-many great London teachers and I possess a terrible voice. Garcia said it would go through a brick wall. In fact, a real conductor's voice. . Do singing students join choral societies] etc., or sing concerted music among themselves? Never! Because their friends and teachers tell them that they will spoil their voices if they sing with others. What bosh! If the student does not possess enough intelligence, will-power, and common sense, not to shout in a choir, as his neighbours may perhaps do, it means pretty clearly that he has no mental and ear control over his voice, and is going to spoil it anyhow, long before he comes out professionally."

Talking of the recently published life of Sir Arthur Sulivan, a reviewer in the 'Musical Times" eavs:—"What will come as a surprise to the reader is Sullivan's half-hearted feeling towards hi 3 work for tho Savoy partnership during the years of its duration. He would have liked to throw it up after 'Princess Ida' (ISS4). He felt that it was cramping tho music that was in him, but the pressure of success was too strong. Sullivan had acquired expensive tastes, and the Savoy oj>eras were, as Gilbert said, 'a goldmine,' which Gilbert could not for the life of him seu anv reason for not exploiting to the last yellow grain. Cilbert was quite frankly out for success, and couldn't have too much. All three partners grew, through force of habit, a trifle greedy. 'Ruddigore' had to be set down as a failure, ao they all ruefully agreed, as each pocketed £7000 of the profits. . . But did Sullivan ever wholly fling himself, heart and soul and intellect, into musicV We get the impression from this dazzling and disappointing career that some part of his mind was not really engaged. Or how could he, so acute and brilliant a man, have taken up for his most serious efforts subjects that had no genuine interest for him? He did not learn Wagner's lesson—that the a-tist ha< : best be engrossed to the last shred of i his being in his subject." j

Mr. Frank Howes recently addressed the Incorporated Society of Musicians on the subject of musical appreciation, says the "Times Literary Supplement." A cut-and-dried system was the line of approach, said Mr. Howes. Music should be approached like an experience. It was an experience like a summer holiday, or falling in love, or even like bad news. Love for it could not be inculcated, but only spread like a kind of contagion. Interest in it, however, could be increased by study. It was, therefore, permissible to consider different ways of listening to music. The simplest way was that of the people who kept their loud-speakers going from mid-dav to midnight to provide a continuous background of music to their other occupations. Music became to them a drug, a sort of audible tobacco. . . Historical and biographical listening were important, and with the grown of psychological knowledge the relations between a man's life and his work would be increasingly clear. It was psychologically untrue to think that a man s life might be neglected in the study of his music, although many eminent musicians held that music was a pure activity of the composer's mind and that his bio° _phy had little or nothing to do with it. Dr. Markham Lee, the president of the society, in commenting on Mr. Howe's remarks, said he thought the value of biography in teaching appreciation was to arouse the pupil's interest in the composer, but they were going to get into hot water if they tried to link up his music with his life and show that it w-> either the same or different. They could not very well tell a schoolgirl class about Wagner.