OUR MUSICAL TASTE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 97, 26 April 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

OUR MUSICAL TASTE.

OLD AND NEW IN AUCKLAND.

DAYS OF LANTERN BEARERS.

: (By A. p. BRIGHT.) In Auckland., appreciation of music might almost claim , to have been, born by the light of the lantern. It was in this dim illumination that affinities in the art—performer and listener alike— first. recognised each other. To the first musical happenings they pressed side by side, or ratner 111 Linn twinkling lines. From Wynyard" Street and* Grafton Boad, where thistles then abounded, crept the lantern bearers; from pleasant houses in Symonds Street behind high fences separating them from stretches of manuka scrub; over clay tracks, short cuts, to Mount Eden and Poiisonby. Not many ardent spirits passed the toll, gates, but numbers of Parnell lanterns flickered up from the beach roads, down into Mechanics' Bay, up again over Constitution Hill on the way -to town. Hobson and High, Grey and Upper Queen Streets were residential quarters' then and along these, too, crept the line of glimmering lights in oddest disorder. For the Auckland con-cert-goer of those days" was impeded by clay and mud, as well as by the vagaries of the weather. Before the invention of gumboots the lantern was almost .as necessary a factor in the making of music as the fiddles themselves —though one or two of these used in our earliest orchestras are now discovered to have been treasures. , : * Temples of Music. '• There were date's when the lanterns rested and the music x lovers gathered under a better light, for My Lady Moon, •With us unnoticed and almost forgotten, was' a reigning deity for pioneers. Mail boats, however, did not depend on moonlight, and it generally happened that visiting celebrities were welcomed by- a great flourish ■of lanterns. These shed their beams on various forms of footwear plodding along the clay paths that led to the theatres, to the Choral Hall and tlie old Drill-,Shed—our sometime temples of music. In the little playhouses was heard -grand opera at charges not made by Chaliapinc. But Siisini was voted cheap at the price, and so* was lima da Murska, later in "The Magic Flute." In the old Choral Hall oratorio was produced, and'there are Aucklanders who'dec!are those early renderings have never been surpassed. Certainly the singing of two of the soloists (ladies) is remembered to this day as unique in its exquisite purity of tone. The Drill Hall is not forgotten, Because it wis there that Wagner was introduced to an Auckland, audience by the Galatea Band, the Duke of Edinburgh conducting.. ■■. Tlie Bus Era. Clay roads, thoiigli still existent, were giving way to footpaths (better ones than the pedestrian .to-day finds flanking the motorists' roads) when, before the advertised con,Cert,v the sometime lantern- carriers began to make inquiries about the Choral Hall bus. Hie lover of horses , has memories not unmixed, with shame of the. horse buses which came into /.possession of our streets and, consciences long before the opening' of the first exhibition, and that held the in for a decade later. But the bus bore its part in the making of music during that period in which the newlyformed 'Orchestral Society presented excellent programmes, while at the same time the ' * Choral Socicty, under Professor Karl 1 gave memorable productions. As in the earlier period, celebrities often visited us, and the, names of certain great singcis with their favourite 'songs—"The Banks of Allan Water" was one—became part of our household vocabulary. Then we heard for the first time Gilbert and Sullivan opera fro nix professional companies and alike. Hie level of church music, 'still maintained m our churches, was raised at this time by Mr. Vincent Rice and Mr. Martin »Swallow ;and 'students whose .mothers had learned' the piano from .Mrs: Krippner and Madame Winter were pupils of Miss Stubbing or her brother, or were learnill" from teachers who' may. still be seen j n ° assemblies .of the -musical to-day.. These generally arrive in motor cars, and probably forget their scrambles over the mud by light of the lantern. Some few. of the. lantern carriers may have been present—and it is certain many of the bus rider? were—at a meetof music-lovers held a ; few months arro to assist in the inauguration of a society for the production in Auckland of chamber music. Its purpose was explained to 1 be the fostering of that taste in music bcirn so hardly nearly three-quarters of ( a century ago. kigns 0 f— n ot dissolution exactly, nor yet deer epitude-T-but of an'increasing' lassitude have been found hi the body musical, arid this seems seriously to threaten the well-being of music in Auckland.

The Measure of Appreciation. The measure of a'musical audience-is not the clamorous applause with whicn a favourite selection or soloist is received. It is found in the ready recognition of the merits of a fine programme and the generous appreciation of difficulties overcome. Judged by this standard, the warnings of the critics cannot be disregarded." The initial difficulty..of ■ filling a modern concert hall, if selections of light, not to say flimsy, music do not accompany the presentment of any solid classic, is in itself disquieting. Popular taste when. the Choral Society _ first essayed to form it did not rise higher than programmes of dance music and ballad. The leader* in this latent effort would lift the standard to a plane beyond musical comedy and jazz.. This, in view of the untiring efforts through many decades of the established societies, choral and.' orchestral alike., is not higher than any that has ruled in our musical history. But it must be remembered' in taste is evidenced' v in; centres-of. music larger and nearer the world than is Auckland. The root-of tie difficulty may. be "with the gramophone Taste in music, engendered by.a course of even perfect records, may eventually become as uncertain as tliaf ruling in another art when the. habitue of certain restaurants. develops .a. craving'for luxuries almost undreamed of by the ordinary diner. Unlimited opportunity generating appetite ungoverned by the finer perceptions of the "trained epicure may evolve the worn-mam!, or,-, as often happens, result fn the ultimate loss of all desire for food. It is reassuring to find that this latest of musical • unions (the inception of which was regarded, by some as being in the naiture of a crusade) Is launched with the happiest of auguries. This is, of course, not; . For if hardy upbringing counts in constitution then the musical taste, of this city, bcrn so. strenuously and throughout its youth so wisely and consistently fostered, should still be thoroughly sound, and, in spite of disquieting symptoms, should take a lot of killing.