MUSIC AND RECORDS.

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 95, 16 January 1926, Page 18

MUSIC AND RECORDS.

By

C.J.M.

The String Quartet, The amount of music composed for string quartet is appalling (writes Alfred Sprissler in the “Etude”). The amount of this which is bad is devastating. Estimating roughly, about onefifth of the compositions for the string quartet is useless to professionals and impossible for amateurs.

The form reached its culmination with Beethoven. Since then the works of Tschaikovsky, Dvorak, Brahms, and Smetana have been only extremely difficult and often melodiqjis twitterings. The Brahms is only played as an index of ability and courage, and the Smetana is performed because of the movement immortalised by the Flonzalcy’s on a certain phonograph disc. Mendelssohn and Schubert, especially the postliuihous work of the latter, which embodies his “Death and the Maiden” as the Andante con moto mo’/ement, sometimes rise to the heights, but are a trifle “thin” in the harmony and contrapuntal science, after Beethoven. The incipient quartet can do n-i better than to begin with Papa Haydn, whose work in this field stands in a class by itself. The quartets are short, melodious, solid, and worth while as an opening wedge to the vast realm of string quartets. Haydn never forgets himself and searches for extraneous effects as even Beethoven docs in his later works in this form, but keeps an equable, flowing melody which it never retarded by very serious technical difficulties.

Some of the Haydn quartets are, to the uninitiated, nothin" more than soli for the first violin until the wearied 'cellist finds himself stared out of countenance by an apparently innocent passage which taxes his powers to perform. It is these little “jokes” which keep the quartets always fresh. The most famous is the “Kaiser-Quar-tet,” Opus 76, No. 33, which makes use of the Austrian anthem, “Gott E.rhalte Franz Unseren Kaiser,” as the theme of the adagio movement. This is again used iti the variations immediately following and is in turn taken up by the other instruments, each voice having the melody in a separate variation against the accompaniment of the other three. The second variation is a wonderfully ingenious duet for the two violins, the viola and ’cello resting. For the study of Haydn the amateur quartet will do well to produce the “Funfzehn Berutntc” quartet, published by Peters in an excellent edition. Tins contains the melodious Opus 5.1, No. 1, the “Kaiser-Quartet,” and others of equal interest. They are all melodious and easy in rendition.

But do not think Haydn is easy. All music is difficult. The quartet, especially the string quartet, «s the most difficult form of musical expression. In Haydn much depends upon the interpretation. and good organisations are incorporating his works in their repertoires because of this very thing. After Haydn has been mastered and the true worth of the quartet is brought home to the players, Mozart should be studied. This composer’s works require more study than Haydn’s; for they are intricate, and the contrapuntal labyrinths, although not so involved as those of Beethoven, are rather above the average amateur’s capabilities. Later, however. Beethoven may be approached with due reverence and regard. On the way up to him one may attempt Schubert and Mendelssohn for diversion. Then the general ruination of quartets, Brahms, may be attacked gingerly. This composer’s writings seem to hold a strange and awful fascination for quartets. His compositions are the goal for which many quartets ' strive, and during their striving the agony of the audience is pitiful to endure. Did Wagner “Reform” Opera? In an amusing book of essays called “Music and Life,” W. J. Turner, an English conductor and critic, gaily, if somewhat inaccurately, thus questions the extent of Wagner’s influence on opera. “The tradition that Wagner reformed opera is firmly established but exceedingly vulnerable. Suppose we ask to be, shown the fruits of the reform, what should we be confronted with ? Blank silence, I should imagine, from any discriminating judge; but from others a list of post-Wagnerian operas, of which the best known are “La Boheme,” “Madame Butterfly,” “Louise,” “Pagliacci,” Cavalleria Rusticaria”; the best, “Mefistofele" and “Hansel and Gretel”; and the latest, “The Boatswain’s Mate” (an English

opera by Ethel Smyth). Of all these operas one may say truthfully that the more Wagnerian they are the worse they are. There is scarcely one of them as good as “William Tell,” or Cherubini’s “Water Carrier,” or Gluck’s "Orpheus,” not to bring into comparison Weber or Mozart. This may only mean that these later composers are less naturally gifted than the men before Wagner; but it is strange that the decline in talent should be so general, and it is stranger that it should reach its nadir just where, the Wagnerian influence is most marked, and it becomes more than strange when we can plot the same curve in the work of one man. For example, the best of Puccini’s works is “La Boheme,” which is far less Wagnerian than the much inferior operas “Manon Lcscaut” and “The Girl of the Golden West.” Personally,. I think such operas as "Manon Lcscaut,” “The Boatswain’s Mate,” and “Louise” a great decline on Bellini's “Sonnambula” or Donizetti’s “Daughter of the Regiment,” or Verdi’s “Il Trovatore.” It is not the fashion to think this. For some reason or other, to make a singer thunder in a heavy, melodramatic style, “The soup is rgady,” as Charpentier does, is thought far superior to vocalising it with a trill and a flourish—though as a matter of fact the old Italian composers did not introduce soup into their operas.” We are “with” Mr. Turner in his respect fur older Italian operas, but believe Wagner’s reforms were genuine, none the less remarks the “Etude”). Gounod, Bizet, and Verdi were cer-

ainly influenced for the better by Wager in “Faust,” “Carmen” and Verdi’s iter works from “Aida” on, as was leyerbeer, and—later—Massenet and

Saint-Sacns. But Wagner’s reforms also .extended to libretto-writing and stagesetting to a remarkable degree.

The Song Accompaniment.

In his “The Consort of Music: A Study of Interpretation and Ensemble,” J. A. Fuller-Maitland says: “It is difficult to say at what moment in the history of the song, the accompaniment began to have points of musical interest as distinct from the singer’s part. In Bach, whose separate songs are of course only with a figured basis, only one other treatment of the accompaniment occurs, that in which there is a regular obbligato for the instrument, making up a duet for the voice. By the time of Haydn and Mozart the value of the accompaniment as a separate means of expression is already perceived, and in the ‘Canzonets’ of the former there are numberless cases of its use in this way, even with occasional pictorial suggestion, as in ‘My Mother Bids Me Bind My Hair,’ where the words 'while others dance and play’ inspire a little skittish figure in the accompaniment.

. . In the songs of Zumstceg. who is ! generally regarded as the pioneer of tlie art-ballad in Germany, the ritorsnelli, or what were called 'symphonies’ by English musicians, contain all the passages in which the accompaniment is allowed any individuality or phrasing of his own; and the same holds good of .vaKY large number of songs even down- lo modern times. Loewe ■wrote majJJl baua.ds j n which the connecting tii.« iUu 1 ul . the whole is occasionally bo “to the accompaniment, and JBeetlioven in the ‘Liederkreis—An die terne Geliebte’—puts exquisite bits of ritornello into each of the songs and binds them together with the theme of the first resumed at the close; this resumption is begun by the piano, which heralds the change I (three bars before the three-four time) with little imitations of the voice-part and a flourish which though soft must yet be fully alive. In Schubert there are plenty of instances of all kinds of tieatment of accompaniment from the simplest arpeggio figures to the most elaborate and even technically difficult accompaniment; but in nearly all cases the figure of the accompaniment must be mostly kept in the background, and individuality reserved for the ritornelli.”

Poverty and Musical Genius? “Enduring music has been the child of poverty,’’ says George P. Upton, in “Woman in Music,” and to prove his point, gives a long list of humble origins. “Sebastian Bach was the son of a hireling musician,” he reminds us “Beethoven’s father was a dissipated singer. Cherubini came from the lowest and poorest ranks of life. Gluck was a forester’s son. Lulli, in his childhood, was a page and slept in palace kitchens. Haydn’s father was a wheelwright; and his mother, previous to marriage, was a cook in the kitchen of Count Harrach, the lord of his native village. While on his deathbed, Beethoven called Hummel’s attention to a picture, and said: ‘See, my dear Hummel, the house in which Haydn was born: to think that so great a man should have first seen the light in a peasant’s wretched hut.’ Mozart’s father was a musician in humble circumstances, and his grandfather a bookbinder. Handel was the son of a bar-

her and surgeon. Mehul was the son of a cook. Rosini’s father was a miserable strolling horn-player, who led a wild Bohemian life. Schubert was the son of a poor schoolmaster; and his mother, like Haydn’s was in service as a cook at the time of her marriage. Schumann was a bookseller’s son; and Verdi the son of a Lombardian peasant. Among all the prominent composers, but three were born in affluence—Auber, Meyerbeer, and Mendelssohn.”

Mr. Upton wrote the above before the Russian composers came into prominence, evidently (comments a reviewer in the “Etude”). Tschaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Borodin, Moussorgski, aiid many others came at least fiom the professional ranks. In Italy, Puccini came of good professional stock, as did Leoncavallo. Sir Hubert Parry, long director of the Royal College of Music, was a baronet in his own right. Elgar is the son of a cathedral organist. Sullivan’s father was an army bandmaster and head of Kneller Hall, the music school of the British Army. The father of Richard Strauss was a horn-player, but not of the strolling variety such as fathered Rossini. Poverty is not so essential to genius as hard work.

Kennedy Rumford, who with his wife, Dame Clara Butt, will give their first concert in Wellington Town Hall on Saturday, January 30, says that he and his wife always find it easier to sing in Australia and New Zealand than in any othei part of the world. “Our experience therefore suggests,” be added, “that the climate is very helpful in assisting a singer. There can be no doubt that climate plays a very important part in the produc-

tion of so. many fine voices as one hears , in Australia and New Zealand.”

A journalist breakfasting at an hotel in Milan heard someone improvise on u piano.

It was otilv 7 o’clock so he asked the head waiter if piano playing was allowed in the hotel at that early hour, “Not as a rule,” the waiter replied, “but we make an exception with Verdi.”

Chopin once administered a gentle, vet sharp rebuke to one of those lionhunters who exploit . good-natured artists. He had been invited to dinner, and after the repast the hostess asked him to play something. “But mj’ dear madaine,” he exclaimed, “I have eaten so little!” RECORDED MUSIC His Master’s Voice. According to the Loudon review notes by the last mail, several good things are on tlie way. “Parsifal” lovers will welcome the album just issued by the His Master’s Voice people, for the eight discs it contains give us rather more than an hour oi Wagner’s music; the notes on the inside of the cover, moreover, will add greatly to the enjoyment of the music even by those who know something of the opera. We get famous excerpts familiar to the concert room, such as the Prelude and the Good Friday Spell; the latter, however, is in its concert-room dress. In the vocal selections Robert Radford is the Gurnetnanz, Walter -Widdop the Parsifal and Percy Heining the Amfortas; the conductor is Albert Coats. The Grail Scene of the first act is well represented, and a chorus does as well as may be with the hazardous choral writing here. A disc is devoted to the music of the Flower Maidens, but the flower maidens do not sing. The Hcrzeleide solo for Kundry is sung by Gota Ljungberg in German. It is rather an old compilation, therefore, though to be welcomed on its own merits. There is going to be need for some experimenting with needles, for the /basic playing strength of some discs is about double that of others.

An H.M.V. recording by Sir Landon Ronald and the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra of the Nocturne from Mendelssohn’s "Midsummer Night’s Dream” music is of the highest class, and far and away superior to a recent issue of tlie same music.

For H.M.V. Paul Robeson has recorded two Negro Spirituals; one—■ “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?” is the most deeply moving of them all.

Opera—and oratorio—is well t epresented in coming records. An H.M.V. “Carmen” disc introduces a new singer to us in Jeanne Gordon, who sings in French the “Card” song of the “Seguidillas.” We do not get in the

former anything approaching the true values of its orchestral accompaniment —at any rate, on the every-day machine—but Miss Gordon sings with a finely dark passionate note befitting the music, and Bizet hereabouts is a composer of genius. Superb in every way is another H.M.V. disc which gives us Florence Austral in “Hear Ye, Israel,” and Handel’s “From Mighty Kings.” Miss Austral’s, for sure, is the voice of a generation.

The H.M.V. people are the main contributors to recent recordings of “occasional music.” There is “English as she is not spoken,” by the Stanton Brothers, and that teasing thing, “I miss my Swiss,” by The Happiness Boys. John Henry is Joe Murgatroyd for the nonce, and we get to know what “Joe Murgatroyd says”; on the reverse John Henry gets paid out by a “Curtain Lecture” from “Blossom,” quite in the Mrs. Caudle manner. Jim Miller and Charlie Farrell in the very reminiscent “Hay, Hay, Farmer Gray,” jingle attractively, and are at times funny. The Co-optim-ists are responsible for three discs—“responsible” in this connection does not imply to blame—and the idiosyncracies of Melville Gideon come through very well—perhaps best of all in “You forget to remember.”

Amongst the new dance records the lango is strongly in evidence, and with its rhythmic elasticity within the basic measured rhythm is far more musical in effect than the Fox-trot. The latter Is not altogether dead, however, for more examples are forthcoming, but the people who write fox-trots seem to have exhausted its possibilities. The danceroom will probably find it put on mainly to oblige the elderly dancer, and a few years hence the old folk may be found lamenting the good old fox-trot of the early twenties. One of the more musically attractive of the Tangos conies from H.M.V.—“EI Panuelito,” by De Dios I'iliberto, and played by the Varaldi Band. There is more character in this music than in the others, though a good word is due to “Julian” by E. Donato, played by the same band. The other companies do not appear to have discovered the Tango as yet, but there seems no doubt about being in for a spell of it. The Waltz keeps within the picture, but it is difficult to care for the waltz on the dance orchestra of todav.

There are en route some interesting fight records, among which is a very good example of the art of Mr. NTelvillc Gideon, of “The Co-Optimists,” now playing at His Majesty’s Theatre, who shows great skill in a rendering on one record of two of his own songs, “Funny Little Tune” and “The Longest Day.” Mr. Cyril Newton provides another record on which he lias recorded, with plenty of feeling, “Sunny Havana” and “Babette,” two songs of no very great distinction. A different type of song is provided by Mr. Wendell Hall, who, first with the help of a ukelele and then of a guitar, sings “We’re Gonna Have Weather” ond “It Struck My Funnybone,” two broad pieces which contain a good deal of entertainment.

The only orchestral suite, “La Boutique Fantasque,” has apparently been made by the new process. At all events (says a reviewer) it has a timbre unlike that of any other orchestral record I have heard. At first one has an impression that a military band is plaving, so incisive, brilliant, and even strident is the tone. This is not all gain, for we get little real string tone. On the other band, some details of the wind-playing are extraordinary vivid and true. Probably, as the procees is developed, the metallic, cutting character of the tone will be reduced. The most promising feature is the sign that at last we are in sight of orchestral records that shall rival—even beat—the dance orchestra and military band In brilliance and sonority. Fibre needle enthusiasts and others who like a quiev life may protest that they don’t want power, but I fancy most of us feel that an orchestral work in which power and brilliance are essential loses most of its point when the gramophone reduces the scale to such a degree that we feel we are listening through the wrong end of a telescope, sp to speak. This particular record is, therefore, of great interest as a harbinger; when one gets over the first jar it is enjoyable. I add that a mediixm needle is advisable.

Bralnn’s Variations on a Theme of Paganini arc not often heard, so there should be a welcome for the unusually fine set of records of their performance by Backliaus (two 13in.). The playing is masterly, and the recording > well above the average. Probably most people under-value these Variations. I did (says a reviewer) until I heard these records, and I am grateful, to the gramophone for once more putting me on terms with a hitherto Unappreciated work—a masterpiece in its way.

Heifetz is as uncannily brilliant as ever in a couple of light pieces—an engaging waltz by Godowsky and Acliron’s “Stinunung” (10in.). One may pitch into this player for his choice of small works rather than great, but when one hears the small thing so perfectly done as this waltz there is realty nothing to be said. I doubt (says a reviewer) if any other fiddler of the day could beat it, though there are no doubt several, who could leave Heifetz behind in a big classic.

Of a good batch of vocal records the pick is surely that of Chaliapin in a couple of extracts from “A Life for the Czar” (12in.). Even the most zealous advocate of opera in the vernacular must be given pause by such singing as this. So varied and significant is the tone that one is held throughout, though not a word of Russian does he know. The ordinary operatic vocal record is mere futile ear-tickling beside this. The orchestral part deserves mention for its vividness.

A typical Galli-Cnrci record is the 12inch giving a couple of “Trovatore” airs, one of them very brilliant, ending at a dizzy height that will bring down the house where great store is set by mere altitude.

Apollo Granforte pleases me fess in his latest record than in a former one «f the “Credo’’ from Verdi’s “Otellq” (says a reviewer). Here lie is heard in “O Lisboiia,” from “Don Sebasiiano,’’ and "Largo al Factotum.” A wonderful voice, poured out over-lav islijy. Less power and a lighter method altogether would have improved the Rossini song, but it is still an arresting bit of work. (12-incb).

Michael Fleta is heard in Lacalle’s “Amapola,” and Cortesi-Bettinelli’s "Bimba, non t'avvicinar.” He still overdoes his “diminuendoes” to such an extent that they become almost a stunt, but (says a reviewer), I like his singing here better than iu any of his previous records.

Some good song records are those of Derek Oldham in Schubert’s “Who is Sylvia?” and the folk-song “The Cruiskeen Lawn” (10-inch) ; Peter Dawson in Molloy’s “Kerry Dance” and Godard’s “The Traveller” (12-inch) ; and Walter Widdop in two capital songs by W. B. Manson — "A. and “Hence away, begone.”

Of the dance records, the most interesting is a composite affair provided by the Savoy Orpheans, to which one cannot dance, because the human voice is constantly interrupting to explain what it is all about. It is called “Round the World Medley,” and occupies two sides of a 12in. record. Its title is self-explanatory, and it is well put together and amusingly played, but dancers will prefer the two records provided by Mr. Jack Hylton’s band, which contain four "catchy” fox-trot tunes. Other dance records are pro vidr-d by the Salon Dance Orchestra. The Apollo Male Voice Chorus put plenty of effort into their rendering of "The Soldiers’ Chorus” from “Faust,” which has also been recorded by the Gramophone Company. Columbia.

Dora Labette is well known to discriminating collectors of records of vocal music. She is facile princeps as an interpreter of Elizabethan songs. These she sings with knowledge and insight and with a voice of refreshing clearness, free from suggestions of artificiality, but noteworthy for tlie art with which it is used. This is manifest in her latest record of “Come Unto These Yellow Sands.” Old English songs suit her well, and among those it is suggested should be tried are “Whither Runneth Aly Sweetheart?” “Her Rosie Cheekes,” and "Sorrow, Sorrow, Stay.”

Some idea of the excellence of the musical programme broadcasted from London may be gained from the records made by Columbia by permission of the British Broadcasting Company, of Rex Palmer, a very fine baritone, in "Is Not His Word Like a Fire?” and “It is Enough,” from "Elijah.” Mr. Palmer’s songs, “Mane, My Girl,” and “The Ballad-monger,” show him in another aspect aud incidentally the excellence of the recording of his admirable voice and manner.

One of the most astonishing musical developments is the call for more and more classical works on the gramophone. An instance of this is the demand for Haydn’s “Surprise” Symphony, as performed by the New Queen’s Hall Orchestra, Sir Henry Wood conducting. These records have just arrived in New Zealand, but they are already to be heard wherever sound musical taste prevails over the mere desire to be. amused. The symphony, however, is nothing if not melodious in every movement, and on that account makes a general appeal to all lovers of music, the learned and the unlearned alike. One very encouraging sign of the change criming over public taste for the best music is the character of the music now to be heard at the principal picture theatres. These piogrammes are an| eye-opener to those who imagined that the classics were unsuitable for popular consumption. The gramophone had brought into the home before the picture theatre, however, symphonies of Beethoven, Tschaikovsky, Dvorak, Holst, Mozart and Havdn recorded by Columbia from performances bv such orchestras as the London Symphony. Roval Philharmonic, Queen’s Hall and Halle; and the ouartets of Mozart, Beethoven, and Havdn through the Lener String Quartet,

Ravel’s “Pavane pour une Infante definite” is one of tlie most delicate little pieces written for the orcheMni in compartively recent years. The pavane is an old solemn Spanish measure, and in this case the form has been used for what seems like the funeral march of a dead little princess, it has been excellently recorded for Columbia from a performance by the Queen’s Hall Light Orchestra, conducted by Prank Bridge. The frequency with which it appears in orchestral programmes explains its popularity, sad as it is as a piece. This is a record that should find its place in every ...Ibuni where other than dance music is preferred.

Among the latest records to be made exclusively for Columbia by the Roval Philharmonic, conducted by Bruno Walter, is the Nocturne from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream" music. This is used to introduce Act IV, in which the poor distracted lovers are asleepjn the forest tinder the spell of the fairiies. It is marvellous to think that Mendelssohn was not 20 when he wrote the music to Shakespeare’s comedv. The nocturne receives just the masterly interpretation that one might expect 'from so eminent a conductor as Bruno Walter. He is a recognised authority on Wagner, as Weingartner is on Beethoven. Therefore the companion piece to the Nocturne is appropriately from Wagner, and is a fine reading of the prelude to Act HI of "The Meistersingers.”

The magnificent effect of the massed glee clubs of America, singing in "Adeste Fideles” (“O Come all Ye Faithful”) has been heard in many homes during the holidays,. where this striking record has found its way. To make the record at all was an outstanding technical achievement of Columbia, but the point to be noticed is that it opens the wav to hearing further of the great choirs of England and Wales in oratorio and great national songs. In the record above referred to the choir of the associated glee clubs numbered 850 voices; but when the audience that heard them sing in the Metropolitan Opera House joined in, 4000 strong, the actual effect must have been sublime, judging by the record of this great event. There mav vet be a record of a Handel "Festival Chorus,” as they used to be heard at Crystal Palace, taken as the American glee dub success.

The visit of Dame Clara Butt to New Zealand has already stimulated t|ie demand for her gramophone records. This distinguished artiste records exdusivelv for ihe Columbia Company, end it is because she so consistently sings the songs of the people as well as the greater arias that She is beloved of the masses. Her records are too numerous to mention here, but all of them reveal not only the rare art of which she is so capable a mistress, but that perfect sympathy that betokens complete understanding. there are also records available of duets by Dame

Clara Butt! and her talented husbano, Mr. Kennerley Rumford.

The Columbia Company’s issue ot Beethoven’s colossal “Quartet ,in A minor,” Op. 13'2, is a masterpiece of playing (by the Lener Quartet) and of recording (notes a London reviewer). The details are clarity itself, the whole is in the most perfect taste, and the tone is exquisite and well-balanced. Every library should contain this set of five double discs.

Another fine record is that made by Albert Sammons and William Murdoch of Grieg’s violin sonata in G. It is all very beautiful, indeed, and if one must single out something for special praise then let us take the latter half of the sonata. But all is lovely. So is Gustav Hoist’s “St. Paul Suite,” a work of rarest jollity, tuneful—does it not contain “My Lady Greensleeves” in its jovial finale ?—and well recorded under the composer’s direction.

There is plenty of spirit in Sir Henry Wood’s version of the “Oberon overture, but the orchestral tone seems just a trifle thin.

"Britain’s Queen of Song," as the programme says (I hope we are not to adopt this horrid habit from America!) —who is she? I had better tell vou, I think, because you might waste so much time in guessing. Her name is Clara Butt, and the illustrious Dame makes a brave effort to keep what we used to call the royalty ballad alive, which is nowadays so very nearly dead. Miriam Licette sings well and records as well the'waltz from “Romeo” and “They Call Me Mimi,” from “Boheme. A capital selection from “The Duenna” is included in this catalogue.

The Cherniavsky Trio give an excellent account of the eternal “\alse Triste” and one of Dvorak’s Slavonic dances, and amongst other items of interest are the really beautiful . saxophone records made by Al Starita, of Saint-Saens’s “Lc Cygne,” and an American piece, four Hawaiian novelties wonderfully played on a steel guitar, two pieces played by the Century Ouartet, with banjo, the singing bv 'William Heseltine of a couple of ballads, and of Dale Smith of some old songs in a new guise. For those who like’ them the Layton and Johnstone duets will be found to be superb and even; for those who don’t, they are a fine example in clarity of diction.

The Denza Dance Band sounds more noisy than it reallv is in its record or "I Miss Mv Swiss,” but "Waiting Till It’s Moonlight,” “Make Those Naughty Eves Behave,” “Craving,” and “When Eves of Blue,” are capital fox-trots capitally played. I confess that the new tangos, which seem to be coming very strongly to the front just now, intrigue me very much.. At least, foi that part of poor suffering huniamtv that has perforce been supersaturated with fox-trotism during the past few vears, they come as a boon and a blessing, because of the great change in the rhvthni and their, at present, freshness. In the past year or more I think I have not happened upon more, than a mere handful of fox-trots that uad.a word to sav that had not been said over and over again before. I hope the tango will not induce neurasthenia to the same extent as the fox-trot; but when these epidemics arise one never can tell how long they will last. Here we have a set of four as played . o, Parisian orchestras, and, on occasion, sun" in delightful French Iney are ‘Errev del"Cabaret,’ “La Preciosa, "Mi Perdicion,” aqd “Una Noclie en el Garron,” in all of which is a strain of something very like plaintiveness and an abundance of strong rhythm.

Choral Records on Parlophone. Irmler Ladies’ Madrigal Choir.—The Irmler Ladies’ Choir, says “The Gramophone,” sound of just the I’gbt size for effective reproduction. If too many voices are employed (and particularly if anv one of them wobbles in the slightest), the tone is most evilly affected, in gramophone work. The vital importance of eliminating every voice not absolutely perfect in intonation has never been realised yet. A slight oscillation that may not afflict one in hearing a choir "at first ear,” disturbs the balance in recording. I should like to hear these accomplished ladies in some of the madrigals arranged for women’s voices published recently by Stainer and Bell and Novello. Their technique promises that in the supreme test of madrigal singing they would not be found wanting in subtlety and poise—the highest attributes, and the most vital. Their name indicates that they do sing madrigals. I hope they will soon give us some examples of their skill in this kind. At first hearing, and without having been able to play any of these records immediately before end after any other examples of recorded choral singing, I am inclined to say’ that the Irmler Choir outdistances any other I have heard in this way. The chief defects of womens’ voices are almost all absent—the hootiness or bleat of the lower parts, and the veiled quality of the middle voices. Ihe tone keeps a high level of steadiness. The balance is neatly maintained. Whether one always likes the occasional soloing of the soprano part is a matter of choice. It is never offensive. The singer of this part, apart from a slight over-intensity on loud high notes at moments, keeps within the picture.