MUSIC

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2988, 27 January 1917, Page 13

MUSIC

CBy "T-reMe-Ctef .")

Paul Dufault's Secret. "I know several first-class artists in America," said Paul Dufault in Sydney, "who are really anxious to try their luck in this country. I fancy, however, that they, do not realise the difficulties arising from the immense distances which .separate, the great centres. .It results in this—that a singer must make four or five appearances to large audiondes in the same city. Now, to retain the popularity thus demanded, a singpr must bare much more than a fine voice. He (or she) must be ablo to deliver a message",to appeal to the heart, to interpret touchingly the joy or the sorrow.of. the yries which have inspired the composer. My own success in my repeated Australasian tours has been founded upon this gift. There are, howover, all over the world, a great many first-rate artists who rely almost entirely upon the power, range, and 1 quality of a well-trained voice. A favourite melody does the rest for them, and especially in America tliey.are ablo to draw crowds' because the population is so enormous that a single appearance in a city, and then on' to the next engagement, is the rule. 'Australian managers have gradually realised the disappointments and losses which follow tho engagement of vocalists of this calibre, aud do not encourage them to make experimental t<nirs here." A Musical Parson. The Rev. J. H. Chaseling, rector'of St. Peter's Church, Neutral Bay, Sydney, is one. of those iare clergymen whom organists, choir masters, and everyone who loves church music, appreciate and reverence. Musical clergymen are numerous enough, but there are few parsons; especially in Australia, who' fully realise the importance of music in its relation to church services, its power as an aid to devotion, its elevating influence, and the exquisite art form that is erected in its alliance with ceremonial. _ With most of the good men who look after our spiritual well-being anything, or next to nothing, will suffice in music in the church. But Mr. Chaseling has a love for. the aesthetic side of religion, and has developed a fine sense of the symbolical poetry which is found "m the alliance of music with rites and ceremonies. "Too busy with other things," says the average parson when taxed with the poorness or the choir and its music in his church. Mr. Chaseling is evidently not "too busy to attend to the proper and-reverent rendition of the services in his church. He finds time to undertake the building of a new organ, even though he has been twice to the front as chaplain, and is, at an early date, due again to leave his.beloved services and exchange the sound of the stately double chants and pealing organ lor the tumult of battle, the thunder o great guns, and the roar and crash or bursting shells.

Marie Narelle Again. Mine. Marie Narelle, besides presiding at the marriage of her son in New York, when her daughter, Kathleen, a Sydney student, who .won an Associated Board scholarship here, enabling her to bo trained as a pianist in London at tho R.A.M., played the organ, has also figured as principal soprano at a military bazaar, attended by President "Wlison. This was the bazaar of tho 69th llegiment, whose baud, a_nd a chorus' of 70 members of the Bohemian Church, supported Mine. Narelle, when she eang as welcome to the President "The Soul of Old Glory," lyrics written by Miss Lucy Cleveland, cousin of the late President. This brilliant function was officially described as \\onian's Day, and took place in the Armory at Lexington .Avenue.'.ana Twenty-sixth Street. • The programme included motion pictures depicting scenes in American history. The object was to raise a permanent fund in aid of tho families of tho National Guard, doing liorder duty, and a great sum was realised. Mine: NarcUc, whose '■ beautiful voice was a high mezzo, has since been trained for opera as a dramatic soprano.- Tho IrishAustralian singer has now been away along time, as her last concert tour in Australia was the Chester Fentress, tho Franco-American tenor, in the win'ter season of 1906.

English Composer Dead. John Francis, Baniett, the wellknown English composer, died in London, on November 24, after a brief illness. He was a member of a family that for a century maintained high musical traditions. The father of his famous uncle, John Barnett, was a Prussian, whoso name was originally Bornhart Beer, and his wife was a Hungarian lady. Ho was related to Meyerbeer. On taking up his residence in England he Anglicised his jiamo to Bariiett. John Francis Barnott was thoroughly British on his mother's side. Her paternal grandfather was Cornelius Hudson, the originator of a system of printing on calico. Born in London in 1837, Barnett's first musical instruction was given him by his mother. At the age of eleven he became the pupil of Dr. Henry Wylde, and at fourteen gained the King's Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. . On tho expiration of his scholarship he went to Germany, and as a pupil of Plaidy, Moscheles, Hauptmann, and Julius Bietz he learned much. On returning to London he became established as a pianist and teacher. As a composer his first a), pearance was made under the auspices of the London Musical Society, which performed a Symphony of his. As a result of the impression of that work Barnett was commissioned to write a Cantata for the Birmingham Festival 1567. The work was a setting of Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner," which made an instantaneous success. Various other Festival commissions followed, and these were met by "Paradise and the Peri" (Birmingham, 1870), "The Raising of Lazarus" (Hereford,' , 1870), "Lay of the Last Minstrel" (Liverpool. 1874), "The Good Shepherd" (Brighton, 1876), "The. Building of the Ship" (Leeds, 1880), "Tim Wishing Bell" (Norwich, 1893). His last | choral work was a setting of Konts's "The .Eve of St. Agnes," produced by the London' Choral. Society in December, 1913, in which lie showed tho koenest appreciation of tho modern development of his art. In addition to choral works, Mr. Barnett; wrote several orchestral pieces. He excelled best as a choral writer, arid though the examples of his ability like the "Ancient Mariner" arid "The Building of the Ship " arc now found to he in a mould no longer observed, they were excellent specimens of their period. The songs and pianoforte pieces which ■Mr. Barnett brought out as recently as 1912 showed that he appreciated ■tho modern development in musical technique, and that he' could adapt _ his ideas tn it with considerable facility. As a p'anoforte teachrr Mr. IWnott was well known at the Unyal College of Music and -the Guildhall School of Music. Record of Mr. Barnntt's workis not complete without reference to his completion of the. sketch of p Symphonv in 13 by Schubert. Unlike thn well-known "Unfinished" work in B minor, the Symphony in E, begun in 1821 at Vienna, was complete,.but only in sketch. The harmonisation and orchestration were, wanting. _ The "lamiscript was in the possession of Sir George Grove, and tho task of in nnd scoring it. entrusted ■ to Mr.

Bariifitf , ., wns carried out with sympathy, knowledge, .and resource.