MUSICAL MURMURINGS

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 76, 30 March 1935, Page 5 (Supplement)

MUSICAL MURMURINGS

BILLIE was a little girl of nineish, who possessed, besides a Koala teddy bear and lots of prettj frocks, an aunt who was "coming to stay" and bringing her "music.' What this music was Billie hardly realised, but mum told her it was big, and dad said Auntie Bee could sail in'it. 1 Billie, remembering a toy piano that hadn't played after a "spring dean," thought it must be. a wonder music, and watched the river just in case. One day she was playing near the water with her bear, who was being sung to sleep, when she noticed a boat approaching steered by a strange fellow with a black head and long, thin body. "This way for the show. Tickets three gum leaves apiece." He sang this in a tone of "Come and see, it's worth the fee," so Billie stepped aboard. "I hope it's a flower show," she ventured, but the bigheaded helmsman kept chanting, so she kept a sharp lookout. The boat soon came to a jetty,, and awaiting her was Auntie Bee. Billie was delighted, and hugged her. "Are you coming to the show, too?" she asked. "I sent for you," said Auntie • Bee. "This was such a lovely chance to answer some of your questions. But pay Mr. Crotchet your three gum leaves." Billie did so, and he said "Thanks. When I have plenty of these I will make a music myself." "Does he mean a boat?" she whispered. "No, dear," laughted Auntie Bee. "He means a song. He is a note, and after getting lots of sets of threes he turns into a rippling song. But come and see my music."

She led the way to a delightful glade, and at the bottom of it Billie saw a house seemingly made of set* of five straight lines. "This, my pet," explained Auntie Bee, "is the house of music. We are the only mortals here, and the others are the musics themselves. They all have names and they will tell you what they do. Mind you're most polite, as they are all dependent 011 one another, and i£ one is put out the rest are upset too. My music is there too. He is a 'Cello, and I love his tone the best. But that is a secret."

Billie by this time was all agog to visit the place where no tiresome grown-ups went. Then Auntie Bee said, "Here's Mr. Flute. He will take you inside and I'll come later." Before Billie could answer, he was in front of her looking rather pompous and learned. "Well, young lady," he said, "you will want to see everything in the House of Music. Look at me. I'm straight, hollow, made of blackwood, and these silver keys press down to make my notes sound. Mortals blow on my mouth—see it here —holding me on my side at right angles to their faces. I have a shrill, lovable cousin called Piccolo. We look the same, but he is merely 12 inches to my nearly 20. 1 His voice is piercing because he is so tiny, but mine is more mellow." Billie watched Mr. Flute while he pointed to the things he. talked about. "lie's a little like my school teacher," she thought, "but I like him." He smiled suddenly and said, "Well, that's me. Now come and see the Strings." The slight deflection in his tone made Billie wonder if he and the Strings —whoever they were—had quarrelled. But his tone held reverence as he led Billie to a raised portion in the house and said, "IIo! Leader, a visitor." / The leader raised her long, graceful neck. She lia<l a curly liead, with four pegs sticking from It. "Welcome,

Billie," she said graciously. "Sit here and I will tell you about me. I am a Violin. Of course you know a violin always leads the orchestra." Billie looked a little blank, but she liked her voice, so listened hard.

"My shape is familiar from seeing us in shop windows, but I am old —almost a hundred years. I was made from such wonderful wood and fashioned so skilfully that my voice is true and sweet. People say I am becoming lovelier to listen to eaih year. Several of my brothers and sisters of varying ages arc here with me. Half play the melody part while the rest play accompaniments. I play the special parts, and if someone doesn't play his I do it myself. That is why I'm called Leader." Billie's brow cleared then, and thinking "She's a bit like a Queen," she watched Mistress Leader Violin as.semble all the strings. All sizes of violins lined up, the small in front, (lion bigger, then bigger than that, and finally biggest of all. "Billie wants to know us all," she said, "and J. want her to know how we "enjoy playing together. The size next to us y seems to puzzle here. Look at him, child. lie is a little bigger than me, and played in the same manner of tucking this rounded end under the chin of the Mortals. You know how at school in part-songA you sing soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Well, these —the Violas—play the alto part just ■ a little deeper than our voices. Now these are " "Auntie Bee's music," interrupted Billie. "She SAys it is the best music in the world." "Yes, they are lovely," said Leader Violin. "Mo'rtals sit down to play them, as 'Cellos are larger than the Violas. They blend delightfully with my tones. And these —these big father-sized Violins that are standing up have a most important part. Theirs are the deepest notes in the whole orchestra, and they boom through keeping us altogether. But

here is a secret —don't ask a Double Bass to sing alone. It's so deep that it seems a groan, and not too

pleasant to hear." "Parade of everyone, please," was her next order. "I want Billie to see the wood wind. Mr. X-lute first. Ah! I see you know him," as lie and Billie exchanged smiles. "See this black hollow, stick-looking pair. They are cousins, and both are played the same way by blowing into the hollow part and pressing the silver keys. One is a Clarionet, and/this is a ilautbois—call him Oboe until you are grown up. He makes a thin, reedy tone because the part that is blown is two pieces of thin bamboo wood placed one 011 the other. I his leaves only a tiny place to blow, and he is sometimes known as 'An ill wind that nobody "Wows any good.' The Clarinet, has on;y one piece of bamboo fitted at his bead over the thicker wood. But never mind them now- vou will remember them all later on," for Billie looked quite nuzzled. "Isn't this last fellow long? The longer they get the larger the tone. That silver part coming* from near the top of him is where you blow for the notes. Mr. Bassoon, meet Miss Billie." "Delighted," he boomed. Billie felt sorry he needed a juttmgout part. It" seemed in the way. "Did vou know," he said, that I often "play t' le same music as the 'Cellos?"- Billie didn't, but he looked so kind and fat that she sat beside him to chat awhile. Then she heard some short sounding noises. "What's that?" she cried. "Oh," laughed Mr. Bassoon, "just Cornet and Trombone arguing. They're brass, and Tiombone has a leg that is pushed in and out for his sounds, while Cornet has small levers that push up and down. They are always arguing who has the nicest voice, and they shout about it until neither of them are worth listening to. It's the, brass in them coming out, I fear." This was witl? a sigh and a glance at his Ion" wooden body.

"Xow little ladv, come arid see me." This invitation diad a thump, thump tone which startled Billie. "It's Drums," whispered Mr. Bassoon. "If you visited all Ins family, the big fellows and the small, his bells aiul triangle and the round brass tub cousins, you wouldn't go home tonight." Billie thought she wouldn't mind, but then she heard an echoing sound that sent her flying from the house. Slio sped to the jetty, was in the boat steered by Mr. Crotchet, and back in her garden in a trice. The sound was now no echo, but music, mellow and rippling. . She rushed into the house and found it was the 'Cello singing to her. "Oh! Auntie" Bee," she gasped, "come with me back to the House of Music. They will all play for us. Please come." "What new game is this?" asked her mother, "or did you have a sleep there by the river?" Billie's face droppe<l, but Auntie Bee led the child outside. "Tell me all about it," she said, ."and if we are good perhaps to-monow they will play for us."