THE WORLD OF MUSIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 117, 20 May 1933, Page 7 (Supplement)

THE WORLD OF MUSIC.

DIAPASONS AND ECHOES. FROM FAR AND NEAR. (By ORPHEUS.) COMING CONCERTS. TOWN HALL. May 25—Royal Auckland Claoir, First Conccrt. In all probability, one of the Auckland Chamber Music Society's future programmes will include a performance by a chamber orchestra. There will be many people sorry to hear that Mark IJarnbourg, who was associated with Peter Dawson on his last visit here, has been seriously ill in London with pleurisy.

The Royal Auckland Choir will present its first concert of the season next Thursday evening at the Town Hull. Included iu the programme will be an instrumental trio, the composition ot Mr. H. C. Luscombc. This will be played by Haydn Murray (violin), Dr. Trevor dc Clive.Lowe ("cello), and Mr. 11. C. Luscombc (piano).

An opportunity of hearing Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto (No. 2), played by that lino pianist Paul Vinogradoff, with the IYA Chamber Orchestra, is to be given listeners towards the end of next month. Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor is to follow later on, the pianist being Eric Waters." The Broadcasting Board is to bo complimented upon its policy of giving us the opportunity of hearing works such as these from its stations.

The second of the winter recitals to be given by the Municipal Band will take place in the Town Hall to-morrow evening, when a very attractive find varied programme will be presented.

Included in this will be the Scherzo and Finale of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, Weber's "Obcron," Bizet's "L'Arlesiennc" suite No. 2, also Sullivan's "Mikado," and many lighter numbers.

That unmitigated nuisance the latecomer at concerts —like the poor—is-still with us, and will continue to remain unless conceit promoters take a firm stand in the matter. At a concert given recently, although it started at the quite late enough hour of 8.1;), the opening item was delayed for some time while late arrivals strolled into their seats, the artist meanwhile seated at the piano awaiting a quiet moment to make a start. This practice is one of the worst forms of bad manners, for it is an annoyanco both to performer and audience. A one-time bishop of Auckland to lay down and practise two "•uiding principles in life; they were I?e courteous" and "Be punctual, and one covered the other.-

In a letter received by the writer from a well-known Wellington criti<appropofl of the opening concert of the Spivakovsky-Kurtz Trio, the following appears: "This conccrt was to me one of the most interesting I have ever listened to. In the words of Harriet Cohen, the music they performed expressed itself as 'Come and hear what beautiful music this is,' and not, 'Come and hear what we can make of this. Thank goodness they have forsaken the beaten track and introduced less familiar masterpieces. If lam n °t mistaken, you v ill share my enthusiasm when you hear them and be enchanted with the snap, precision and artistic wholcaonieness of quality of their programmes."

The following programme was presented at the May evening of the Academic Club: "Turkish March (Beethoven), strings and piano, conducted by Mr. W. Morris; Quintet in E Flat, 'first movement (Schumann), played by Mesdames Edmonds and Rudd and Misses Higham, Brown, and Amour; Sonata in D Minor, for violin and piano (Brahms), played by Mr. and Mrs Morris; piano solos, (a) Ballade in JJ Minor (op. 10), (b) Cappriccio m B Minor (Brahms), played by Madame Anno Morris. The Brahms Double Concerto" was also presented through the medium of the gramophone. Ihe principal feature of the evening was a lecture given on Schumann s Quintet in E Flat by Mrs. Edmonds. This lecture, which was most interesting and instructive, was illustrated by recordings.

Peter Dawson is to open his tour of the Dominion at Wellington on June i. The popular baritone has something lo any about the improvement in public taste regarding music generally. "Tne old style of ballad is now as dead as can he," lie says. "To-day, concert audiences demand songs of a class that 20 years ago would have been considered highly classical. That is the measui c of the improvement in taste. Gone for ever are such numbers as 'The Bandolero' and 'The Bedouin Love Song'; while as for a number like 'Thora' —to sing it at a concert in these days would demand of your audience sympathetic toleration." However, if Peter lived in Auckland he would still hear a number of well-worn "shop-ballads" being sung ut concerts. We had an example of this at a classical concert only last week; and there was no one in the gallery either. Last time he came here it was very noticeable that the gifted singer sang, for the most part, a much better class of song than ho usually records, and it is to be hoped that he will continue to do so on his forthcoming tour in this country. Meanwhile, those who sing r.t wireless stations might ponder over uis remarks, as quoted above.

The Bohemian Orchestra Trill present its first programme of the year in the Town Hall on June 29.

A correspondent, "D.H.," writes as follows: "I have written some music which I'd like to submit for publication, but need advice about necessary procedure. Do publishers correct manuscript or should' I seek an authority's criticism first? Who arranges royalties for the words of a song, the publisher or the composer?" The best advice one can offer to ''"D.H." and others is "Consult one of the principal sellers of sheet music in the city." The music dealers receive quite a lot of inquiries such as the above, and from long experience of what sells best they arc well qualified to pass judgment and to suggest the most satisfactory course to be pursued by the young composer. The answer to the first query is that if "D.H." is not a musician the best course would lie to submit the composition to a qualified professional musician, who would say whether it had merit and, that being the case, could, if necessary, knock it into shape before being submitted for publication. Should anyone be found willing to publish the composition, he would probably make an offer of a royalty of so much per copy sold. On the other hand, it is open for the composer to have the composition printed at his, or her, expense and take all the profit, if any. A well known English musician who has written a large number of songs and instrumental numbers which have sold well (he composes under three names, by the way), tells the writer that there is very little money in musical composition. However, successful composers sometimes mak'e money. One of these fortunate people, a friend of mine, who lives at Epsom, tells me that he contemplates making a trip across the water on the proceeds from his royalties. Tt is just a question whether he can get up early enough to catch the ten o'clock boat to Chelsea.