Regional Conservatorium Of Music Advocated

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30042, 29 January 1963, Page 9

Regional Conservatorium Of Music Advocated

A national conservatorium of music, financed by the Government or Arts Council, would represent a “paltry . . . policy of centralised, totalitarian-type control, the ambition of a chauvinistic megalomania,” Dr. Vernon Griffiths told the New Zealand School Music Association in his presidential address at its annual conference yesterday.

“For many years I have advocated the establishment of a regional conservatorium in association with and controlled by the regional university, making full use of the best local private music teachers and professional performers,” said Dr. Griffiths. “Its young students would be growing and developing in their own region, amongst their own people, and they would be living in their, own homes. Their work individually and together as creative artists would react beneficially on their communities and would fertilise the whole cultural growth of the region. “There could be close school contacts. “With our experience in Canterbury of the rapid growth of the John Ritchie String Orchestra and the Orchestral Foundation, we know that a regional professional symphony orchestra would eventuate. As you know, a professional string quartet joins the Canterbury University staff this year. Always the effort would be made to offer the students the highest advantages available in this country. Auckland University has made a notable beginning along somewhat similar lines. “An Arts Council official, giving recently an address on the functions of such a body, included amongst them the establishment of a Government or Arts Council-con-trolled central conservatorium. “I find no mention of such a function in the annual reports of the Arts Council of Great Britain. My belief is that the universities, the schools, and the qualified professional teachers are the natural leaders in a country's musical development. Arts councils may support them in their work but not supersede them. “Complete centralisation of control, especially in cultural affairs, is a characteristic feature of totalitarianism; and I say advisedly that all interested in the development of musical culture in this country should watch vigilantly the trend of affairs. “For the vitality of New Zealand’s future, I hope with all my heart that our musical culture will be allowed to grow and develop naturally upwards from the homes, schools, churches, private teachers’ studies and the universities as the great musical cultures of the past have (lone; based on real creative activity (whether in composition or performance), smiled on by enlightened local and national government, but suffering no interference from either; not

stultified and made meagre by any parvenue policy.

“Finally, I return to the m atter of standards. They are essential for the creation and maintenance of enthusiasm, for the will to go on working hard, for the truest individuality and community satisaction, and tn enabl* New Zealand to take its place musically among the nations.

“We cannot pull ourselves up by our own shoestrings. We must be measuring our standards constantly against those of overseas countries.

“But far above the standards of university degrees and overseas diplomas are those of great artists—the great composers and virtuoso performers of the opera houses and concert halls of the age-old overseas centres

of culture, the brilliant schola cantorum director* of Vienna and Paris, the truly great conductors.

“Unlike the Arts Council apparently, I want (and I believe you do) a really generous provision for the best young musicians who have made full use of their opportunities - here to go through that great world, first of all for their own sakes and then because some of them will come back to fire the imaginations of the young in heart and stir their compatriots to help in laying in their own beautiful country and in th* age-old way the foundations of a truly national culture based on the homes, the schools, the churches, universities, towns, and cities of the nation.

"How paltry by comparison is a policy of centralised, totalitarian-type control, the ambition of a chauvinistic megalomania! I believe that all who know the historical truths of national culture, its sources, and its development —all who value the ideals of

standards—should combine to safeguard the future of New Zealand,” said Dr. Griffiths.