MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2693, 12 February 1916, Page 9

MUSIC.

4 . rßv Tbrblb CLur.l Paul Dufault Coming. Paul Dufault, ilia gifted FrenchCanadian tenor —the finest interpretative artist we have heard—is actually coming again to New Zealand. It was rumoured' last year that he might revisit Australia, but with the greatest war in history raging it was not at all certain that such a tour could be ' arranged, and, moreover, Mr. Dufault ' has been coming into his own. in ' America since he was last here. His ' tour in association -with Miss Fclice Lyjie was a great success, and lately he has enjoyed a boom tour in Canada, where his lingual gifts would naturally stand him m good stead. Mr. Fred. Shipman told me during the week that Dufault was leaving America in time to arrive in New Zealand about April 20, and that the tour of Australasia would conunencc at Dunedin at Easter (April 25). Mr. Dufault will be supported by Miss Pauline Bindley, the clever Bendigo soprano, who was a I member of the company that supported ! the tenor two years ago, and Mr. Harold Whifctall, the distinguished pianist and accompanist, of Sydney. Free Trade in Music. If some musicians with peculiarly constructed minds fancy that their' absention from German music is going to help the cause of the Allies in the least degree, their contemporaries of a like mind in Germany must be placed in an infinitely more embarrassing position in arranging their programmes. Not that they are given to "strafeing" English music to any extent, nor would ■ they miss it. The English are not a truly musical nation, and their music is of minor consequence, but French and Italian music is invariably used on Gorman programmes, as a contrast to the heavier-textured German music. But as a matter of fact the Germans have never confused the war with music, and the composition of enemy subjects are played just as freely as their own. Only recently three Russian artists appeared in Berlin. These were Jadlowker, the famous tenor, who appeared in "Lohengrin"; Jcsef Levhinne, the pianist; and Wanda Landowska, the clavecin performer. Despite the patriotic fulminations of Saint-Saens, his music in Germany and the operas of Puccini and Mascagni are performed now and again. Recently wo were given the musical comedies, "The Girl in the Taxi" and "The Girl on the Film," both absolutely of German origin, though the fact was carefully suppressed. If we are going to ban all German music as we would German commercial goods, life is going to be a deal less pleasant in the future to tho music-lover. Song and the Negro. In the course of one of the final articles written by T. Booker Washingthe eminent negro .scholar and educationist, he wrote of song and the negrQ as follows:— "Nothing tells more truly what the negro's 'ito_ in slavery was than the songs in which lie succeeded, sometimes, iu expressing his deepest tlioughts and feelings. What, for example, could express more eloquently the feelings of despair which sometimes oVertook the slave than these simple and expressive words: "0 Lord, 0 my Lord: 0 my good Lord! Keep me from sinking down." The songs which the negro sang in slavery, however, were by no means always sad. There were many joyous occasions upon which the natural happy and cheerful nature of the negro found' expression in songs of a light and cheerful character. There is. a difference, however, between tho music of Africa and that of her transplanted children. There is a new note in tho music which had its origin on the southern plantations, and in this new note the sorrow and the suffering which came from serving in a strange land finds expression. fliero is something in this slave music that touches the common heart of man. Everywhere that it has been heard this music has awakened a responsive chord in the minds and hearts of those who heard it. "Tliere was a time, directly after the war, when the coloured people, particularly those who had a little education, tried to get away from and forget these old slave songs. ,If they sang them still it was about the home and not in public. It was not until after years, when other people began to learn and take an interest in these songs, that these people began to understand the inspiration and the quality that was in them. It is an indication of the change that has gone on among the negro people in recent years that more and more they are beginning to take pride in these folksongs of the race, and are seeking to preserve them and the memories that they evoko» )J Rhythm on the Stage. In a recent issue of Minneapolis's "Bellman," there is an cassy of more than usual interest to opera composers and hearers. It is called "Rhythm on the Stage," and it is written by Prince Serge \Yolkonsky, whp is a fellow countryman of Tschaikovsky, llachmaninotf, Rubinstein and Tolstoi, and an authority on modern art in general and iius-.j sian art in particular. The titled author sets forth his views very clearly and at considerable length. It would be impossible hero to reproduce thq eleven columns of the ariTcle, interesting and suggestive though it be. Perhaps we can best sum up the gist of the essay by quoting one paragraph: "is not the importance of movement clear ? Is it not clear that with a most beautiful voice, with irreproachable singing, with tho finest appearance, put amid tho most fascinating scenerv and a. most accomplished orchestra," the man, if his movements do not respond to tlie musical rhythm, is nothing, but an intrusive, useless being—a body dressed up from the pictorial point of view; a concert singer dressed iu> from the musical point of view?" According to this Russian critic, few operatic actors ever become a living part of the drama they are acting while , they are singing: "In the drama without, music rhythm , does not manifest itself with such clear- „ liess as in those forms of scenic art where music enters; in tho sense of time the actor is put under easier coiii ditions than the singer or the dancer. • He may shorten or lengthen his pauses • as he pleases; ho may carry, on a silent i scene for two minutes or again for , twenty seconds, and not sin against any , laws or exigencies. i "Quite dilfercnt in the opera and in i tho ballet: the performer hero is subordinated to time. He is wedged in, i and overy duration is pre-established by i tho composer." l'rincd Sorgo AYolkonsky dwells on tho • necessity of tho study of tho rhythm > oil the singe and points out how that many lino voeajitifs fail iu opera for neglecting or failing to put themselves iu Uu: picture: "lly his movement the performer simulhiiemisiy belong, both arts, liv bis visibility lie belongs to the visual iii'fc, (lie painting, the surroundings. I)y liifi I'll.ythm lie belongs to tho auditive lift, the nilisie-. Only by rhythm dees ' lit' fuse with lnusiOi ami through himself elleets the fusion el' niilsie with the . pieltihS lot' liiilsie and the picture have - nothing iii wiilniotii but man has something ill eumiiiou with belli: rhythm ' villi nijisici hiul his a?peet with tho picture.'' ' Jiipiine-e women rarely enter a Court )uf Justiwn