CONSERVATORIUM TEACHING

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26971, 21 February 1953, Page 2

CONSERVATORIUM TEACHING

Investigations Made

In Britain

’ VIEWS OF DR. VERNON GRIFFITHS While on refresher leave in Britain Dr. Vernon Griffiths, professor of music at Canterbury University College, made a close examination of conservatorium teaching. When he returned to Christchurch yesterday he said that he had come to the conclusion that one way of establishing conservatorium teaching in New Zealand would be to follow the method use at the universities at Reading, Cardiff, and Aberystwyth. At these three universities conservatorium teaching was carried on in the university music department. At Birmingham there was an independent school of music that worked in very happy co-operation with the universjty music department, and in Cardiff there was an independent school of music in addition to the university school of music with conservatorium teaching. “In studying these examples I came to.the conclusion that one way of obtaining conservatorium teaching in New Zealand would be to set up in the music departments of one or more of our university colleges the same type of conservatorium teaching as at Reading, Cardiff and Abervstwyth,” said Dr. Griffiths. He added that he would report to the Canterbury University College Council stating this view and certain other possible alternatives. Dr. Griffiths said that he also visited various non-umversity music schools in London and outside London, and discussed with their heads New Zealand conservatorium training. It thes ® authorities cond®^ed that New Zealand should now stand on its own feet in conservatorium training. New Zealand had tne university music departments and a number of excellent private teachers bF ons + S q ? ently these authorities beour standards are such that we could with full justification up our own centre or centres of consegLatenum training,’’ he continued. Npw said had met several cf?XJ? ealand musicians and music that a e J SeaS ’ and these agreed tnat a move for conservatorium training was overdue in .New Zealand r-S2Su ervat .^ rium training, Dr. S i aid ’ P® 8111 training for inumental and vocal performers in an institution m which they become proficent not only individually team of the orchestra a rxi_ tb ® chamber music group. One th ® greatest values of this sort of organisatiQn was that the students lived and worked together in pursuit of a common ideal. Arts Council 4fts Co unc ii i n Britain described itself as an instrument of State patronage, said Dr. Griffiths. Its policy was directed to financing the professional aspect of the arts. The Government policy in Britain today of redistributing wealth was eliminating th® wealthy patron of the arts, and therefore the State and the city, “?e benefactors of the arts in ancient civilisations, had now the duty of assuming responsibility of collective patronage. With Parliamentary sanc“°u» . Government expenditure in Britain in this connexion was directed through the Arts Council, and the cities and other local authorities had .gal sanction to spend public money m the same cause.

The Workers’ Educational Association, he said, did much for the workers in the trade union movement in particular, by. its co-operation with other educational bodies. Oxford and Cambridge and other universities cooperated in accepting trade union and other workers when they had reached a required standard, on a scholarship basis. Most of these people had a preliminary year of training and testing at one or other of the residential colleges set up by the Workers’ Educational Association in co-operation with other educational authorities. Dr. Griffiths stayed at one of these colleges—Coleg Harlech, in Wales. My experience leads me to believe that a college of this type would be of great value to the university adult education departments in New Zealand,” he said.

During his leave, Dr. Griffiths heard a wide range of music. He said that among many interesting performances there were two that he would like to mention. The South West Essex Technical College, under the inspiration of its principal, Dr. H. Lowery, had established a music club which organised annually a series of important concerts in Walthamstow. Dr. Griffiths heard one of these concerts given by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham. Ninety per cent, of the accommodation for this concert had been taken by members of the music club. The other performance was at the “Daily Herald” brass band contest at the Empress Hall, London, where before an audience of 10,000—“ like a Rugby match”—he saw the Fairey Aviation Works Band, with the New Zealander Ken Smith as a leading player, win the championship. The standard of the leading bands was “amazing,” said Dr. Griffiths. He also heard the massed bands' play under Sir Malcolm Sargent. Welsh Culture “To me Wales still seems to have a soundly-based national culture,” said Dr. Griffiths. “For instance, between 600,000 and 800,000 of its people speak Welsh as their first language and 30,000 speak Welsh as their only language. This language itself has real beauty in its sounds and inflexions.”

A great deal was being done by such organisations as the Council of Music of the University of Wales and the Workers’ Educational Association to foster national culture. The National Youth Orchestra of Wales, which had been inspired by the inspector of schools in the principality, consisted of players selected from schools all over the country who came together at a central point for rehearsal and then gave a series of concerts under Clarence Raybould. Thousands of people from all walks of life attended these concerts and showed the greatest enthusiasm.

“I am more than ever convinced that our National Orchestra is a sign of our approach to maturity as a nation,” he said. “If anything were done to diminish the strength and efficiency of this orchestra I am sure that it would create a most unfortunate impression overseas, where it is realised by all that no permanent symphony orchestra can exist on the proceeds of its concerts even when those concerts are attended by capacity audiences. Our National Orchestra is in fact a national asset. “I was over 30 years old when I came to New Zealand,” he added. “This refresher leave came after 25 years of life and work in this country. I am more than ever proud to be an adopted New Zealander—proud of the achievements of this country in its social and cultural progress and convinced that its days of adolescence are over, but not the necessity for continued pioneering. We must go forward as adult pioneers, fostering our National Orchestra, creating our own conservatorium training, and realising that the basis of musical culture in any nation rests on the music-making of the mass of the people.”