MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2752, 22 April 1916, Page 9

MUSIC.

TBr Te£BIB CleiM New Williamson Lead. 'The first actor with a title to arrive in Australia is appearing in "On Trial" at the Criterion, Sydney. This is Royal Player Frank Elliott;. Any. ono who expected from the opening sentence to hear that a knight actor, a baronet, or a peer was to bo' sprung suddenly upon Australia will probably wonder what this "Royal Player" business is all about. There is an old British Act of Parliament which confers tho titlo on ac. tors who, before reaching tho ago of forty, appear for three consecutivo seasons at Drury Lane as leading men. The distinction also carries a yearly sum for' life—enough to make the holder independent. Tho honour is ' very much coveted. Indeed, few attain to it. That Is one reason wliy the Drury Lane fund is worth participating in. Tliero are big accumulations and few recipients of tho annual distribution. Mr. Elliott is the first man in twenty-live years to have played throe consccutive seasons and win tho bonefits to go with the distinction. Tho parts ho played wero tho lead in '■'The Whip,',tho lead in "The Hope," and NoDody in "Everywoman." In tho latter part he followed H. B. Irving. _ ' r "At the time," ho states, "I had a three years' contract with the J. C. Williamson management, but Mr. Arthur Collins obtained my release. He pointed out what benefits would accrue to me,, and I gladly stayed. Now, however, lam in Australia. I have wanted to visit Sydney for some time, having married a Sydney girl, Miss Florence Parsons, a daughter of Mr. L. F. Parsons, of the firm of Messrs. Parsons Bros., of that city." £xoruolatlng Music.' ft The spirit .of "futurism" in the graphic arts has become familiar through numerous oscular assaults. But our sense of hearing, has been mercifully spared until quito recently. Now, apparently, we must reckon with occasional inroads upon the stream tif sweet melody, for what with a distinguished pianist and composer making Futurist music his chief bid for fame, _ and a symphony-oondiictor introducing the genre with apologies and explanatory notes into,his prQgrammes, it may be' looked upon as duo to descend upon the town. Before a recent audience of .the Symphony Society (Nfew York), Mr. Walter Damrosch 'bespoke a hearing of Schonberg's "Kanimersymphottie" as "the most advanced work in modern : musical creation, a work that is neither a freak nor a joke, but the logical result of certain musical ideas." Discord he frankly dubs it, "Who shall say what is. the limit to set to the use of discord?" According to Mr. Vernon Granville, of. th? New York "Tribune," Mr. Damrosch went on with a bit of confession, saying that when tho'work first'eame up for rehearsal it "gave, it is true, excruciating torture; but the human ear, like the back of.a niule, if bpaten hard enough, becomes insensible to pain.". Tho audience, it is said,; after hearing Mr. Damrosch's ; orchestra play the symphony, "not having had its ; ears beaten .through.a series of, rehearsals, still remained sensible to pain."