Brisbane Junior Choir Some Thoughts From Christchurch Visit

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29138, 25 February 1960, Page 11

Brisbane Junior Choir Some Thoughts From Christchurch Visit

Our New Zealand children are used to educational visits and trips. Ask any factory manager. In the spring, city children go to the country-to see the young new life, and country children visit the towns to see what is happening to their primary produce. Scarcely a week passes but some Christchurch school sends an excursion to Wellington, and occasionally bolder groups travel much further afield. Australia is looming on the horizon for these trips. It is now a fact, in the reverse direction, for a party of 60 Australian children has visited New Zealand is still here with the approval of the Queensland Education Department, and under the guidance of two teachers assisted by a committee of adults. This party is the Brisbane Eisteddfod Junior Choir, and their teachers are Mr Alan H. Moxey, and Miss Beverley Ferguson. Mr Moxey is their conductor, and Miss Ferguson their accompaniste. Their deputy-conductor. Mr Charles Hall, is travelling with them also. He is a retired teacher. Mr Moxey is a peripatetic music teacher (there are 10 in Brisbane), whose job is to visit certain schools to take the singing. He is thus in a unique position to pick good voices for his Junior Choir, the ages of which range from 10 years to 17. Miss Ferguson is a specialist music teacher on the staff of the Nundah primary school There she takes demonstration lessons in music for the training of student-teachers. An eisteddfod choir is a competing choir, and Mr Moxey stressed on more than one occasion, that the efficiency of his choir and they really were efficient was due to this fact. The choir came into existance in 1947 as a feeder for the Brisbane Eisteddfod Choir. At that time Mr Moxey was deputy conductor of this senior choir. Both he and the conductor, Mr Frank Robinson, felt the need for attracting youth to its ranks. Hence the inauguration of the junior choir. At the present time the choir consists of some 130 voices, and they regularly meet on Saturdays from 8.45 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. When a competition is looming ahead. 50 children are selected, and these have an extra practice on Tuesday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and perhaps another on a Thursday

evening. Sometimes two separate choirs are formed, and work simultaneously for separate festivals. The children are good sight-readers yet they do not practise sight-reading as such. Mr Moxey explained that sight reading is well taught in the primary schools, so that children join the choir able to read music. This, of course, reduces the time of learning new songs to a minimum. This minimum is a surprising one. Usually after three practices, the children can dispense with the music the song then just requires polishing. Sometimes the music is dispensed with after one or two practices. As a result, this group in New Zealand has 58 songs committed to memory. Is there a short cut in this memorising? Mr Moxey first insists on

discovering the meaning of the words. This helps. It is evident from the expressive faces of the children when singing that they really do feel their songs. Music to them has indeed become a language. Coming to New Zealand has been a big undertaking, even for a choir that had already travelled 14,000 miles in Australia, and won 57 first prizes in 67 eisteddfods. The inspiration first came from the president, Mr L. M. Robinson, and our own Mr J. L. Hay, chairman of the Civic Music Council. The choir then set to work, and began to raise funds. They invited applications from members of the choir for the New Zealand trip, with a guarantee of £5O from the parents in each case. They received 92 applications, finally raised £4OO, and were able to reduce the parents’ donation to £35 each. In Christchurch, the Civic Music Council formed a special committee including representatives of primary and secondary schools, and through its secretary, Mr L. F. de Berry, made the arrangements for New Zealand. Then they came, and what lovely children they were.

The visit is over in Christehurch but its impact remains, and causes one to think. Why, for instance does the Brisbane Eisteddfod attract entries from 150 choirs? Why.can this choir learn songs in two or three practices? Does the competitive spirit really help towards excellence in music, as Mr Moxey states? If we agree with him (and we would be in good company), should we get together, and start an eisteddfod here on a big scale?

MR CHARLES L. MARTIN, who gave this interview, is headmaster of the Christchurch East School. A bachelor of music, he is a pastpresident of the Christchurch Schools' Music Association, and its present official accompanist. He judges musical sections of competitions throughout the country,' and was, at one time, music critic for the “Southland Times.” He spent a year studying music in education in the United Kingdom, and is a life member of the Schools’ Music Association (Britain). A composer, Mr Martin has won a number of prizes, including the Philip Neill prize of the Otago University, and the Christchurch Civic Music Council's prize for a cantata for unaccompanied voices.