"MUSICAL MILLINERY."

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 139, 6 March 1908, Page 6

"MUSICAL MILLINERY."

Ko one can reasonably ileny that' we are a iijucli examined people, especially when it becomes; a question of arts and sciences; and it is equally .undeair able that tests of a 'recognised and legitimate sort are of. immeji§e' use in promoting advancement. So far, so good, but the thing, may bo, and for a good many years has' been, fjbusetl. Examinations should he merely a means 'to an end, but • their purpose,particularly in regard to the immediate subject of o,ur remarks, has been, and continues .to-pei.? mistaken,or, what is worse, ignored, by a. considerable section of the public bQth liej'e a,1( l . Home. Degrees find (|iplomas,'the one class being conferred by .a imiversit-jr, and the other by an 'educational' institutioii iof recognised repute,' such as the /Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College, Trinity College, London, and the Royal College of Organists, arc by, no means to be despised. But, when all is said and done, they are only aids more pr less.;a,dveiititious to the end in view, Your true musician is, like tlie poet, born, not made; and, although a thorough'' theoretical training may be ■eminently^desirable, it will never make a musician of him if .he be' not endowed by nature with the .requisite gifts'. Schubert probably knew not much more of counterpoint than his laundress, but ■ what, a- rich legacy he has left us! We'need_not enlarge upon it; hundreds of exquisite songs, the incomparable unfinished Symphony, to say , nothing of other works, .symphonic, and for the chamber, which seem to be imperishable. Mozart, Beethoven, Spohr, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and a host rif _ others, what degrees or diplomas did. they hold (by examination) ? We all know what bluff old George Handel had to say when 'they were about to make him " Jfijs. Doc." All this) however, is hot intended to depreciate the value of study in regard to musical-art and science, hut merely to draw attention to the craze which has. been for Some • years prevalent, both here,• and at Home,/ for certificates , and, diplofor the mere purpose of, advertisement, and quite; regardless of their legitimate purpose. > \ln or about the early 'nineties,. in ■England, a number of enterprising persons essayed to confer hoods and gowns, ".musical millinery," as it was then, styled, and diplomas, ,entitling the holder to add a large portion of the alphabet tojiis name. They:-hel^l'ex-aminations—save the mark!—and' conferred all sorts of , distinctions upon examinees whose: ; qualifications were often, to say the least of it,' open to doubt,': When this state of things became sufficiently apparent a storm ■ of disapproval, accompanied by much litigation, arose. There has recently appeared in the columns of ji contemporary and elsewhere, a newspaper' discussion as to the ■ establishmenv of a conservatorium of music in, "Wellington, and the scheme has had the support of Mr. Cohen and Sir Robert Stout, the latter of whom, in advancing his theories, went into certain statistics, which, as he aftorwards admitted) were founded \ipon an erroneous basis, and which were refuted with considerable perspicuity and'acumen, by Mr. Robert Parker, one of the most experienced musicians in the Dominion. >/ The time may, and in the ordinary course of events must, arrive, when it will bo tq the advantage of New Zealand to have her musical examinations conducted by. local musicians, but that time, as has been forcefully pointed out, is not yet, The population is still too.sparse ,to obtain a perfectly impartial, however competent, body of examiners; and, without anticipating anything in the nature of a musical millenium, the wisest 'thing to do seems to be to •' learn to labour and to wait;