BLIND GO ON TOUR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 229, 27 September 1935, Page 9

BLIND GO ON TOUR.

INSTITUTE'S BAND.

DIFFICULTIES OVERCOME.

PLEASURE OF MUSIC.

If their performance at a trial concert last night is any indication, tho band of tho Jubilee Institute for the Blind, which ia leaving early next month on a tour of New Zealand, mainly in tho South Island, should meet with unbounded praise and admiration from its audiences. Tho band of 20 players will play at 37 centres, from as far north as Taihapc to as far south as Bluff, and will roturn to Auckland on November 20.

At tho Institute liall last night they gave a typical programme to a largo ■and enthusiastic audience. Tho vigour and precision which they swung into stirring marchcs was no less than inspiring. Striking versatility was shown in tho chango to sonorous hymns, and then to quickly-moving fantasias and dreamy serenades. Versatility was displayed in another way, too. Many of tho players wore able to "double" on other instruments, and oven the smallest member of tho band, Julian Leo, who seemed hardly 12, performed with skill on both cornet and piano. A dance ensemble also rose from tho ranks of the band to play in modern tempo with admirable finish, and many of the individual players gave solo items. Accompanying tho band on its tour will be Sir Clutha Mackenzie, director of tho Institute, Lieutenant G. W. Bowes, tho bandmaster, Mr. E. Frayling, housemaster, and Mr. G. W. Pilgrim. On two previous tours in 1028 and 1030 the party met with warm hospitality and packed houses. Music, being one of the principal pleasures readily accessible to the blind, had held a foremost place in schools for the blind, said Sir Clutha. Great composers were numbered among the blind, distinguished organists, conductors and teachers. But formerly tho musical training had been restricted to piano and organ, for the teaching of string and wind instruments had sometimes resulted in blind people playing thorn in the streets for begging purposes. "With tho growth of trades for the blind, the increase in earning power, the widening of opportunity and tho acquisition of a keen sense of self-respect, however, that day has passed," Sir Clutha explained. "For many years' the New Zealand Institute has taught pianoforte, pipe organ and violin, and frequently its pupils liavo gained first place in Auckland in tho examinations of tho Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College, usually with honours." All day sounds of music float across the sunny lawns and amid tho trees encircling the creepercovered, mellow, red brick buildings of the institute at Parnell.

The military band was formed in 1027. "Of the twenty members of the band eleven are totally blind, four have a minute degree of vision, and five have ample sight for getting about in a good light," said Sir Clutha. Four were schoolboys, and several married, with wives and children to support. They all lived an active life with a full day's work to do. "The busy Wind man will deprecate your regarding his life as a tragedy," said Sir Clutha. "He will asauro you with sincerity of his happiness, of the fact that he has all ho needs for a life of enjoyment and interest. What the eye does not see, "the heart does not grieve for. is his motto." Most of tlie instituted cases were those of adults losing their sight, involving the tragedy of lost employment and acute distress to their families. To put them on their feet again was the institute's job.