MUSIC and RECORDS.

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 97, 19 January 1924, Page 20

MUSIC and RECORDS.

By

C.J.M.

A Scottish Song Book. Under the auspices of the council of the Highland Society of New South Wales, the Scottish-Australian Fellowship has issued a hook of 36 songs, specially arranged and edited for the use of the Scottish-Australian societies. The collection (says a Sydney cable) is really fiiwt-rate within the limits assigned, though such is the richness of the treasury of national ballads and traditional monodies that were the number doubled it would not be sufficient. The original literary text from Burns and minor poets has been accurately reproduced under the editorship and "supervision of the coun/•il, while the accompaniments have been skilfully harmonised and arranged by James Brash, conductor of the Highland Society’s Choir. The tonic sol-fa notation is printed above each bar of the music, and a great deal of laborious trouble was undertaken in correcting the proofs.' . The preface consists of the spirited '‘Tullochgorum” (without the music), wiitten in humorous vein by the Rev. John Skinner (1721-1807), and pronounced ,bv Burns * f tho best Scotch song Scotland ever saw” —and the great poet could afford to be generous if ever could! “Advance, Australia, Fair” then opens the collection, words and music by Peter Dodds McCormick (1834-1916), for many years a teacher in the State Education Department, whose tuneful strains have become nationalised through adoption by tens of thousands of children in the State schools, and presented by the great choir at the Commonwealth celebrations in Sydney in 1901. “Riile, Britannia” is also in the collection to show there’s no ill-feeling, and not forget ting that James Thomson, of Edinburgh (author of “The Seasons ) wrote the lyries; and further on is "Johnnie Cope,” celebrating with humorous sarcasm how the English GenHir John Cope, came to Preston Pans (1745) with 3000 men ‘‘to learn Prince Charlie the art o’ war,” and how the equal numbered Highland clans put the enemy to flight! It is a gran’ collection! There’s the beautiful “D’ye Mind Langsyne. with which Jessie McLaughlan, the great Highland singer, used-to touch Australian audiences, and “The Hundred Pipers,” with which she fired them. “The Campbells are Comin’ ” is in, and that spirit-stirring war song, “Pibroch o’ Donull Dhu,” to which the 79th Cameron Highland Regiment still inarches to battle. ‘‘The Jf alr £ o’ Cockpen,” “Annie Laune, ‘Loch Lomond,” “Scotland’s Fame, “Auld Lang Svne,” and other favourites, are included; and the “Old Hundredth” and the National Anthem terminate Besides informative footnotes on the historv of many of the ballads, there is a handy glossary of Scotch words for English readers.

The Musicians’ Medicine. That some connection exists between music and medicine is, of course, an established fact, and without entering the specialist’s province we may note that the power of- music to stimulate or still emotions has been recognised since the earliest time (writes a reviewer on Dr. Agnes Savill’s recentlypublished work on “Music and Health”). We have all the authority of ancient tradition for the great story of Orpheus, whose 'ongs awakened to life stones and trees, and we have the evidence of common experience for tho assurance that musicians exist to-day capable of promptly putting them to sleep again. Plato’s faith in music as a factor in education is too well known to be quoted here. Tn moro recent times a spirited aria of Gluck is said .to have affected military men in the audience to the point that, unable to restrain themselves, they rushed to the stage brandishing their swords. These latent powers have been studied and used in our own time with fairly satisfactory results. A concert of music is known io have a sedative effect on sufferers from mental diseases. More important experiments were carried on in this country during the war, when the value of song and music in the euro of certain shell-shock cases was demonstrated over and over again. Dr. Savill adds two instances in which music was of very practical benefit. The first is that of an offijeer who had to march nine miles with swollen feet. Half way ho believed ho had reached the limit of his endurance, when the regiment wa» joined by a military band. With an accompaniment of rousing martial music he found tcahis astonishment that the remaining mues were covered with ease. The second case should interest emnloyers of labour: “In one of the great liners a small orchestra played slow and somewhat sentimental strains. Withm hearing of its melodies, a number of workmen were occupied in painting and carpeting. Surprised by the siow progress •mv informant watched the men. The explanation was then ~ clear. . . . Every strode of brush and tool was carried out quite unconsciously to the slow rhythm of music! Not a word was said to the workmen, but the musicians were requested to produce nothing but

rapid or 'martial airs. Tho labourers, singing as happily as before, still unconscious, kept time with the new music: tho work was accomplished at more than double tho former rate.” Stray Notes.

After declaring, quite rightly, that there are certain musical performers whoso excellences demand cataloguing, and others —a very few —whom one just likes to hear without bothering about their points, Deems Taylor, one of America’s very wisest critics, says: “Myra Hess is ono of the pianists whom we would go to hear play even if it were not our duty to do so. Not because of her technique, which is excellent, nor her tone, which :'e beautiful, nor even her interpretative powers, which are highly developed ; but simply because she possesses tho priceless gift of making her listener forget her presence. Hearing her play, one thinks not ‘What good playing,’ hut ‘What good music.’ Tt is the lack or possession of this gift that marks the difference between a virtuoso and an artist.” A short, handy history of music was much needed ever since the pianola and tho gramophone have added to the existing opportunities for hearing and enjoying good music. And Mr. Percy A. Scholes (says a London reviewer), has provided just what was wanted in “The Listener’s History of Music” (Okford University Press). There are lacunae, for, of course,' the history of music from Byrd to Beethoven cannot all b<> told in less than two hundred pages. The author must needs choose from the vast material which already exists those essential points which are most likely to he of interest and of use to the reader. This is w r hat Mr. Scholes has done ably and conscientiously. He has anticipated (as far as an author can anticipate) the questions an intelligent music-lover would put to the expert after a performance of a great work. At the same' time, he has gathered together information which, if. not part of the maip stream of’ history, feeds that stream and is likeIv to be investigated by a more thoughtful type of student. Moreover, ho is never formidable. An unconventional opening chapter is justified on the ground that- it emphasises a vital truth, and also because “one must begin a book somehow.” To crown nil, he gives a list of books to be consulted and gramophone records to be obtained by the many who will put their newly acquired theory to the test of a practical experiment. RECORDED 1 MUSIC Tho holiday season has witnessed the trying-out of various brands, of . portable gramaphones. The principal—l should say, the oply —virtue of a portable is its handiness for transport. It is inevitable that in the desire to achieve the maximum of portability, or lightness, something else must go. There is, for example, a shortening of the tone arm. This, of course, affects the tone of the instrument. However, if one is fair-minded enough to recognise that there must inevitably be limitations in a portable, and that these limitations can be largely lost sight of at a camping party or sea-side dance on a bungalow lawn or verandah, it is an easy'matter to become reconciled to its shortcomings. There are several goqd models on the market, and I do not propose to endanger my peace of mind by recommending any one of them. But don’t buy a cheap one. And don’t put your best records on it. The portable was not designed to servo a. permanent high-class purpose in the drawing-room; it was intended to be used as a portable, an emergency, if ycu like, and as such will be found entirely satisfactory.

The etudes, or studies, of Chopin, aro unique in music. Each ono presents to tne pianist some problem of a purely technical nature, a. problem usually attacked in some arv and mechanical composition; but each one, and every one, is a work of highly emotional character —so purely a work of music that the difficult means necessary to play it are easily overlooked

Admirers of Uhopin will find quite a Kood selection of records to choose from for their library, Nearly all the loading pianists; have been recorded in ♦he composer’s best-known numbers. Cortot ,tho cultured French pianist, has a very good bracket, which inolufles the “Etudes” in G' flat major—' Op. 10, No. 5, and Op. 25, No, 9.

These are beautifully played ,nnd very clearly recorded.

Mark Hambourg amongst his numerous records has a Chopin bracket containing three numbers —“Waltz in D Flat,” “Etude in G Flat,” and the “Waltz in A Flat.” Those he plays with characteristic virility. By tho way, it is not a bad plan to Lave two or three players of the same numbers, if yOu are pursuing the role of a student, for every player has his own ideas regarding interpretation. If you would hear how Moiseivitch interprets Chopin get his records of the “Prelude in C Minor (Op. 28, No. 20), and the “False in D Flat” (Op. 64). Blacketed on this record, by the way, is a delightful little thing from Daquin’s “Pieces de Clavicin” —“Le Coucou” (“The Cuckoo”).

There are various transcriptions of Chopin. Isolde Menges, the clever violinist, plays an arrangement of the “Nocturne Op. 27,” and it may be said that the- music loses nothing in the transcription. It is a good record. Amelita. Galli-Curei. the famous soprano, sings tho Chopin “Waltz Op. 64” as a waltz song of singular beauty —one of her finest efforts.

I don’t know whether you have yet heard our favourite Heifetz in Auer’s arrangement for the violin of Beethoven’s celebrated “Chorus of Dervishes” from “The Ruins of Athens.” It is a brilliant record, and in Heifetz’s capable hands becomes a perfect denior.acal orgy of sound and fury. At a certain Yorkshire town a lady went to the local kinema and asked to book seats for Mark Hambourg’s latest film. On being told that Mr. Hambourg had taken the hall and was appearing in person, she said, “Qh, that’s not what I want, I’ve heard him often, but I did want to see him on the films, he’d be so funny.” Mark has now gone to play to tho Canadians.

A newly-recorded set of physical culture exercises which should be here soon—if they have not already arrived —should have an especial appeal to al! men and women who. realise that they are “not so young as they were.” It is a fact that a tremendous number of pcop'e know that they need exercise or a regular type, but do not know how to get it. These “Physical. Culture Exercises” should solve the riddle. They are in a neat portfolio, complete with eitrily-fol lowed diagrams, with the directions uttered witli a rare clearness of enunciation by a drill instructor, and an accompaniment of familiar tunes, such as “Cornin’ thro’ the Rye,” the Wedding March from “Lohengrin,” and so or.—tho tunes in some cases being moulded to fit the exercises.

Now records which I hopo will reach tho New Zealand market in due course include what is described as a vivid interpretation by the Symphony Orchestra under Albert Coates, of Strauss’s intricate and richly-coloured “Tod and Verklarring.” There is also a fine song of Rachmaninoff, recorded by Smirnoff —this is the composer’s “Chanson Georgienne,” a setting of lines by the Russian writer Poushkin. It is a jroem of sad memories—of the Asiatic steppes, of a longdost love.

Two interesting additions to gramophone chamber music repertoire have been recorded recently. The .Beatrice Hewitt Quartet (piano,violin,viola and ’cello) have recorded in complete form Faure’s Quartet in C minor. The music (says a critic) is rich and melodious—sweeping outlines in the opening and closing movements, vivacious in the Scherzo and expressive in the Adagio, and is charmingly played. Tho famous Flonzaleys present ,a Beethoven movement (the Scherzo from tho C Minor Trio), played with perfect beauty and balance of tone and finish of style. New Columbia Records.

Writing of some recently issued new Columbia records, tlio reviewer of the London “Daily Telegraph” says: “.Most fascinating I found Delius’s “A Dance Rhapsody,” as recorded by Sir Henry Wood and the Queen’s Hall Orchestra, not only because tho work fascinates me, but also because the woodwind ip so beautifully done. Much the same may be said of Vaughan Williams’s “A London Symphony,” also recorded by Columbia. As the record is on two double discs it has clearly been cut, but are there not many folk wno will place this to the advantage of the work? Sir Dan Godfrey and the London Symphony Orchestra have made the record, Part 3 of which is particularly lovely. Then very good, indeed, is the record of “Uranus, the Magician,” from Hoist’s “The Planets.” 1 regret to have, to complain once more that' another first rate Quartet, this time the Lener Quartet, have followed the footsteps of other players, and pre-

ferred to dole out merely two movements from a couple of unrelated quartets instead of giving us an entire work, '•.'ho Lener Quartea here give us tho lovely and familiar Notturno from Borodin in D and tho Scherzo from Tchaikovsky, Op. 11. They are gorgeously beautiful. " But mere sops to tho hungry soul! Charles Hackett’s fine voice toils well in “O Paradies.” from “L’Africuine,” and a vast multitude should enjoy to the full tho admirable singing by Harold William and a male quartet of Stanford’s “Songs of the Fleet,” which, recorded on three double discs, aro highly commendable. So is Dora Labbbtto’s dainty record of an "Even Song,” bv Liza Lehmann, and William Murdoch’s very delightfully neat playing of “Jardins Sous La Pluio” and “Fruhlingsrauschen,” tho pnanoforie tone being capital. “A Musical Jig-Saw,”—a popular pot-pourri of familiar pairs—may well make a &tir m tho nursery at Christmas. Some New Brunswicks. Some interesting additions have been made to local stocks of Brunswick records." Mario Ohamlee, of whose fine tenor singing I w'rote approvingly presents an excellent market—the “Cielo e Mar” (“Heaven and Sea”), and from Act 11. of Pondhielli’si “Gioconda,” and the famous drinking song from “Cavalleria Rusticana.” Bonelli, Brunswick’s popular baritone, sings something out of the common in “The Song of the ‘Mush On,” adding the rollicking “Rolling Down to Rio.” ' Josef Hofmann has a pleasing pianoforte bracket in Chopin’s “Waltz in C Sharp Minor,” and Beethoven's splendid litle march motif from “The Ruins of Athens” (“Tho Turkish March”), which since’ Heifetz played it here on his violin, has become very popular. Other acceptable records include two nicely-sung ballads, “Loch Lomond” and “Drink To Me Only,” by John Barclay (baritone, with orchestra); a Theo Karlo bracket—“Smilo Through Your Tears” (Hambden), and “Fallen Leaf”. (an Indian love song). The comedy side is sustained by Al Bernard in “Parson Jenks” and “Stayin’ Change,” each, of which is typically American, while Lyman’s Californian orchestra comes forward with two fox-trot hits, “No No, Nora,” and “Cut Yourself a Piece of Cake.”

A Novelist and the Gramophone. Compton Mackenzie, the novelist, writing in the Christmas number of “John O’London’s 'Weekly,” says that “the gramophone is able to hblp the appreciation of music by enabling anybody to go on playing a great piece of music until he does appreciate it. This looks like an impudent truism in print, but it is a truism the truth of which I venturb to say is not yet sufficiently realised. I. myself, though my ability to appreciate good music at once grows apace, am not yet able to hear a symphony for the first time and obtain sucli an appreciation of it as I should obtain from the leading of a great poem for the first time. I am still capable of going to a concert and listening there in a condition of steadily increasing boredom to some supremo example of music. Fortunately, I possess a good deal of humility i’ll taste, and if I am confronted by a work of art which has survived the attacks of time and fashion, but which bores me. I always think that I am wrong in not liking it and I usually find that if I hear it often enough I grow to like it. “I am not claiming perfection for tire gramophone,” continued M?:., Mackenzie, “but do claim for the gramophone that it will help anybody to enjoy a concert more than ho has ever enjoved it before. Enthusiasts for the piano-player claim as much for ■-•-■ir i •strment • but I find that the piano-player encourages human vanity. L do not know any enthusiast of the piano-player who is not firmly con-

vinced in his own mind that he plays it better than anybody else, and 1 think that this competition between mechanics and art is dangerous to art. You will find the same tendency among photographers to suppose that thOv are able to compote with painting. A man who owns a gramophone cannot possibly be under the delusion that he P* a J s tho gramophone better than anybody else. He may, it is true, by experiments with sound-boxes, needles, and amplifiers arrive at supposing that lie has a better gramophone than anybody else, but his skill is always dependent unon ‘gadgets.’ he docs; not go through tho ridiculous contortions in which the piano-player enthusiast allows himself to indulge over a nocturne of Chopin. To be sure, a friend of mine told me of an uncle of Ins living in the heart of Russia who put on evening dress every night and solemnly conducted orchestral nejformances upon tho gramophone; hut that was for his own pleasure, and ho could not havb convinced anybody actions wore having .the s 'l £rl ’ te |? effect upon the rendering. Xes, it seems to me not too much to declaie that the gramophone holds the future of music, wc cannot say m its hands, but at any rate in its tone-arms. New Note in Musical Comedy.

The old jest that musical comedy contains neither music nor comedy might very well have been given consideration' by Arthur Kammerstein when he prepared “Mary Jane McEane” for performance, for it is evi-

dent that ho has seriously tried to justify naming this entertainment a musical play” (writes a New York critic). Unquestionably musical is the contribution of the com.[>O’Sere, Vincent. Youmans and Herbert Stothart, who also wrote together the music .ot "Wildflower,” which has been running for months at tho Casino, New Yort. Mr. Stothart in an interview said ho was pleased that hio work had aroused curiosity, although* paradoxicauly enough, his whole aim is to avoid making the audience conscious of .the musicians’ share in the entertainment. Within the more limited field he is tiying to keep the music as legitimately in the v ein of illustraton, comment. and accompaniment as if it were an opera score. “I have tried in this score to get a solid body of music to float the action of the story, as it were —an organlike ensemble of tone. There are no conventional songs with chorus that may bo good music publishing tactics, but it isn’t good theatre. It thp audience cures to buy individual numbers well and good, but the first thought has been to make music that is first of all for the audience at a performance. There is no ‘song-plug-ging’ in ‘Mary Jane McKanc.’ The whole design is based cn character motifs and theme songs, with inner orchestral voices and rhythms for accent.

s‘While it would bo impracticable at present, I should like to have my

orchestra out of sight cf the audience, so that they never would be reminded of plovers upon instruments. To this end 1 avoid any use of outstanding instrumental voices except in rare moments when the harp or the English horn heighten tho mood of an incident briefly. My musical friends laugh at me for bringing tl:e English horn back into light musical scores. They say I have helped put all the English horn players at work by reminding other comjwsere in th; same field that no .other instrument can take its place when you wish to sound s. note of dolefulness or regret.

To those of a legal turn of mind the case of the Performing Right Society versus the “Courier” (Dundee), which was taken before Lord Morison and a jury in the . Court of Session recently, is interesting. The ground of the action was a lettei*, written liy a Dundee ratepayer, and published in that journal, in which the writer commented on a charge of £9O which, had been levied by tho society on the Corporation of Dundee in respect of music performed, in tho Caird Hall, for which the pursuers held the'eopyright. The latter claimed £6OO damages. The result of the trial was a unanimous verdict in favour of tho defenders.