Would, Rather Have Silence

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31168, 19 September 1966, Page 18

Would, Rather Have Silence

Background music—at airports, railway stations and in hotels —is an unnecessary distraction, according to Mr Kendall Taylor, who arrived in Christchurch yesterday to conduct examinations for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.

Such music promoted a lazy form of mind, he said in an interview. People’s attention tended to become jaded, and they did not listen properly when they attended a concert, Mr Taylor said. “That’s why I like this

hotel,” he said. “I can sit quietly and concentrate on this book—about famous conductors.”

He said he thoroughly agreed with the English pianist, Moura Lympany, who said recently she could not bear so much music. There was music on some airlines, and in New York there was even music in the lifts. Mr Taylor, who is also a prominent concert pianist did not want to discuss pop music. "I’ve never heard the Beatles, and I don’t want to,” he said. “I wouldn’t be competent to express an opinion.” But he did say young people today appeared to be able to manage both pop and classical music.

"There are enormous audiences for the promenade concerts in England where the classics of the repertoire are enjoyed by young people,” Mr Tavlor said.

The 8.8. C. regarded it as its duty to produce these concerts, and might present all the Beethoven symphonies and concertos which people who had been going to concerts for 30 or 40 years did not want to hear. But young people had a right to hear these works, and form their musical experience.

Mr Taylor said he had recently completed a tour of 45 concerts in the Middle East, Near East and Australia. He was struck by the

interest in Western music—in Formosa, for instance, there had been an enthusiastic audience of over 2000.

Asked at what age children should begin piano lessons, Mr Taylor said seven or eight years old. This was when they could concentrate on systematic learning. In his capacity as a professor at the Royal College of Music, Mr Taylor has had a number of New Zealand musicians pass through his hands, Including Janetta McStay, Douglas Lilburn, and, from Christchurch, Anna Lockwood, who he described as a brilliant young composer at present in England.