WORLD OF MUSIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 97, 26 April 1930, Page 8 (Supplement)

WORLD OF MUSIC.

GOSSIP OF THE PLATFORM.

FROM TAR AND JTEAR.

(By ORPHEUS.) The opera "Pagliacoi" is to be produced in its entirety a.s a sound picture. An unknown work of Berlioz has been found. It is said to be a duet written for "Les Troveos." An unpublished version of a Bach sonata for violin and piano was played in London by May Harrison the other day. Paris audiences, for some reason best known to themselves, hissed Ralph Lawton's orchestral accompaniments to Paul Robeson's singing. Miss Paterson has been appointed secretary of the Puccini Opera .Society, in place of Miss Williams, who has resigned from the position. "Musicians," eays a writer in the "Musical Times," "are living in a fool's Paradise in the matter of broadcast music. While they are congratulating themselves on the squeezing out of the second-rater, the tenth-rater, both as composer and performer, is having the time of his life." In order to break for the moment the pall of solemnity which usually hangs over this column, I will recount an anecdote for the benefit of the frivolous. A poetic lady went round to the artists' room to see Hans Richter, the famous conductor, after a certain performance of the Ninth Symphony. Said she: "How glorious it must be to conduct Beethoven! Can you describe your feelings, Doctor Richter, when you have reached the end of the divine Ninth Symphony?" "Yes," he casually remarked, "When I have reached the en A of the divine symphony I feel hungry."

On Monday night the Auckland Chamber Music Society will give its opening concert. Until the Auckland Trio began its series of recitals chamber music was neglected in Auckland, and I think it will be admitted that if it had not been for the efforts of Mr. Cyril Towsey and his associates the present revival in chamber music, including the formation of the Auckland Chamber Music Society, would probably not have taken place, in any case, whatever the causes, we may congratulate ourselves that certain 'of the more enthusiastic of the musical people of Auckland have at last attempted to fill a gap ih the cultural life v of the city by providing us with chamber music. The programme for this opening concert will be provided by the Auckland Trio, and will include the Tchaikowsky "Trio in A Minor," Dvorak's "Piano Quintet in A Major" (in which the Trio will be assisted by Miss Lois Walls, second violin, and Mrs. R. A. Singer, viola), and a group of five eongs by Mrs. Cyril Towsev. The programme is a good one and should make an excellent beginning for the operations of the society. As this is the first concert of its career, I should like to take the opportunity of wishing the Auckland Chamber Music Society every success in its future work, which will certainly prove of inestimable value to the musical life of the community.

There can be no better nor more convincing argument for the building of a Conservatorium of Music in New Zealand than the amount of sheerly bad singing one hears in public these days, particularly over the air. And when one realises that, incredible as it seems, these singers represent the top stratum, and that there are probably layers of others underneath, getting worse and worse as they go down, it brings one out into a cold sweat. I am not referring to the handful of really competent singers who perform for us; I am thinking of the class immediately below these —of that seemingly limitless array of singers, male and female, who sing in public and who very obviously ought never to be allowed to sing anywhere except in the bath—and then only when alone. To be perfectly just, I suppose the Broadcasting Company is not altogether to blame for the feebleness of many of . the vocal items it sends over the air. The radio public (presumably) demands a great number of vocal items, and if the good singers are not available in sufficient quantity the bad ones squeeze their way into the programmes. A Conservatorium might not cure this state of affairs entirely, but it would at least set a standard of performance, and, what is more vital, of teaching, which would set the pace for artists and teachers in general and compel them to keep up to the mark. The most popular method of learning to sing at the present time in Auckland (even among good singers) seems to be to pick out two teachers, neither of whom knows any,more about singing than about Sanskrit, take lessons from one of them, then go to the other and get his particular little fads superimposed on the bad habits you have learned from the first man. The process may be continued indefinitely, if desired. In every case the result is more or less the same. After three or four years of this sort of thing the singing pupil comes away with a vile hotchpotch of several different methods (all of them bad, probably), a general feeling of bewilderment, and the shreds of what once might have been trained into a reasonably good voice. Just about this time he, or more frequently she, makes a blind rush for some broadcasting studio and tries to pass the burden of her wasted time, money and energy on to the listening public. Whatever else a Conservatorium did, it would help to exclude people who have no natural voice from wasting hard-earned money on tuition and to give the singer with talent an opportunity of developing it along sound and consistent lines.

Fixtures for the current season of the Academic Club include an Auckland composers' night (in July), a Brahms' music and lecture evening, a Russian composers' music and. lecture evening, and at least one amateurs' evening. Mrs. Morris, the president, tells me that steps are being taken to arrange some sort of co-operation between the Academic Club and the Auckland Piano Students' Association If this can be arranged it will certainly be to the 'benefit of iboth organisations These two societies, though modest in their pretensions, seem to endeavour to make every week a music week and set an example in enthusiasm to some of the 'bigger societies On May 3 the Auckland Municipal Band will give a Sullivan night. A first-class programme has 'been arranged, which will include lighter numbers from "Haddon Hall," specially arranged by the bandmaster, and Sullivan's great "In Memoriam" overture. A new instrument is shortly to 'be added to the resources of the hand in the shape of a vibraphone. This is a percussion instrument on the lines of a xylophone, with a clockwork device which allows the belllike notes to be sustained for several seconds, producing a very beautiful effect. It will be on the platform at the band concerts within the next few months.

(rlazounoff, the Russian composer, Is having a royal time in America. He has been received and feted a* * hero everywhere, and since his arrival the great orchestras have tried to outdo one another in their homage to him. The Fascist Government of Italy seems to be getting down to business. Having syndicalised most of the industrial work of the nation, it is now turning its attention to the artists and the intellectuals. "It is perfectly legitimate for artiste to group themselves into syndicates," says an American writer, "but the Fascist State* wants t-o do more. It intends the artists' syndicates eventually and gradually to take over the direction of the artists' affaire of the nation, controlling plastic exhibitions, theatres and concerts. Last year concerts of contemporary Italian music were given in various cities by the respective syndicates. The final aim of these competitions is the National Exhibition of Contemporary Music, which will be held in M'.y under the auspices of the National Syndicate -of Musicians. It will include two or three orchestral concerts and four or five of chamber music. This great review of the musical energies of the nation should bring out all that to-day really deserves to be considered, as interesting in Italy."