Shirley Music Festival

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33032, 27 September 1972, Page 16

Shirley Music Festival

At a concert in which the participants are young children one would expect a spirit and freshness, if little in the way of polish and refinement in the performances. Yet the first evening of the Shirley Area Music Festival was virtually a desert of flat and lifeless singing in which the occasional item given with naturalness and youthful charm stood out as a welcome oasis. The singing of the Richmond School Junior and Senior choirs was particularly noteworthy. Far too many items were killed outright by conductors’ attempts to achieve "nice” performances. It seems as if preparation for an "occasion” deadens the natural spirit of children’s singing. Perhaps we could at least partly forgive this loss if the perparation ensured worthwhile performances. But even this was not the case. The children sang in time and more or less in tune, but very little attention! was paid to diction —the ends syllables were all too fre-! q'uently missing — and to breathing—why allow a breath to be snatched in the: middle of words — "e-breath- ■ ver” as it was in the last, massed item. Even a short period spent on voice production would have ensured security in high notes, instead of leaving them to chance as too often appeared to be the case. The choice of music always poses problems, and some unsatisfactory selections were made last evening. There is surely little point in attempting to provide sophistication by selecting items that, if not in notation, at least in interpretation, are beyond the capabilities of the performers. "How lovely are Thy dwellings” is an adult’s song and the mechanical performance it received from the Shirley Intermediate Choir clearly showed this.

Children best appreciate music that is melodically and rhythmically alive and interesting. This was obvious from the success of those groups that kept to folksongs—Richmond Senior Choir had the most sensible selection. We would do well to explore such an avenue, for it is in those countries where generation after generation have been and are being nurtured on such grassroots music that the highest degree of musical culture, spread throughout all sections of the population, is to be found.

On last night’s showing, musical education in our schools is teaching children to sing and play a few pieces more or less correctly. Any feeling of direction and growth seems lacking. —B.W.P.