A MUSICAL TRADITION

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27990, 9 June 1956, Page 5

A MUSICAL TRADITION

DR. J. C. BRADSHAW’S CONTRIBUTION

\ Reviewed ,by J .A.R.i "J. C. Bradshaw, A Memoir. By F. K. Tucker. Caxton Press, Christchurch. 179 pp. The artistic development of places like Christchurch is often attributable more to individuals than’ to organisations. Whereas in the old world, cultures have been supported and inspired by the Church, the. principality, or, later, the State, m the younger countries patronage was almost dead by the time the pioneers could turn from their initial duties. Devoid of tradition, bankrupt in literary and musical initiative and hampered by our colonial laissez-faire atti-

tude to the arts, we, as a community have depended greatly on the effort, the, vision and the hard work of men who were determined that we should inherit more than just material prosperity. Such a man was John Christopher Bradshaw. Dr. Bradshaw, whose long tenure of office as organist and choirmaster in the Anglican Cathedral of Christchurch ended in 1937, was also, for a longer period, lecturer in music at . Canterbury University College, eventually becoming Professor. During this time he was also actively associated with various musical societies in the city. Mr F. K. Tucker’s book surveys the achievement of Dr. Bradshaw with an enthusiasm bred of long and loyal discipleship. The organist, the choirtrainer, the conductor, the teacher, the composer, the mountaineer—all these aspects and more are traversed with a loving attention to detail, and since, presumably, he writes as a layman, one can excuse the lack of definition in purely musical matters. It may be that this limitation of vocabulary causes the undue repeti-. tion which mars the book. Most certainly there is too much poetic quotation. Such passages as the following are not uncommon: “He was in the main a stricttimeist. My own feeling—shared by a greater than I—is that this should be true of all true musicians: ‘How sour sweet music is When time is broke, and no proportion kept.’ Yet a lifetime of listening has shown me that with many performers, some of them eminent, time is not ‘of the essence of the contract’.”

Mr Tucker rightly emphasises the scope and nature of the work in the Cathedral during Dr. Bradshaw’s regime. His methods, as described—in spite of the author’s assertion to the contrary—were orthodox. That is the great virtue of all that he stood for. From normal principles he produced results of a very high standard. Insistence on detail and accuracy—a personal trait—was the mainspring of what is now becoming a tradition. No wander he hated the shoddy and the ill-prepared when by nature he was repelled by inaccuracy and slovenliness. There is much of interest in the old programmes quoted. The emphasis on Coleridge-Taylor, Cowen, Sullivan and German may seem quaint viewed from this distance of time, but we are not to know that our present-day preoccupation with Vaughan Williams. Howells, Thiman and Finzi may not be viewed indulgently by writers in a few decades. And it is significant that Dr. Bradshaw provided orchestral fare the like of which is not available in Christchurch from a local source nowadays. It is easy to glean from the chapter contributed by Mr L. F. de Berry that orchestral accompaniment for choral societies was no less of a problem then than it is today. Of Mr Tucker’s style one must commend its fluency. He gives the impression of being widely read and his delight in organs and organ music permeates much of the text. Like most disciples, Mr Tucker clings to the superiority of the past. By implication, he holds that standards are nowhere the equal to what they in Dr. Bradshaw’s day. Loyalty is a rarer quality than it once was and in this context one cannot but admire it, although the conclusions it leads to may be challenged. It is good, nevertheless, to have placed on record a memorial to

a musician for whom the striving for perfection was a life’s work. Dr. Bradshaw was undoubtedly a great man. Whether his greatness was of the nature to be written on at length is doubtful. In many respects—as was inevitable—his work conformed to a routine. When that routine was followed so successsfully as to produce fine results there is not much one can enlarge upon. One does not doubt Mr Tucker’s sincerity but one must question whether this memoir Could not have been a quarter j n Jath and four times as effective. Ola Cathedral choristers will relish this book. Little imagination is needed to get some idea of the reminiscences which it will provoke. Music is remarkable for that sort of thing. When brass bandsmen. chamber music devotees or music teachers get together, there is no stopping the flow of anecdotal activity. For Dr. Bradshaw’s followers there is now n ? P, eed m ev , en 1° get together. A copy of Mr Tucker’s essay will suffice.