PROFESSIONAL TEACHERS' REPLY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 73, 26 March 1926, Page 6

PROFESSIONAL TEACHERS' REPLY

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —Recent remarks upon music, especially singing, in New Zealand made by Dame Clara Butt have appeared in the Press. The New Zealand . Society of Professional Teachers of Music wishes to point out for the benefit of those who do not appreciate the value of these comments that Dame Clara sang practically the same programmes as twenty or thirty years ago. We claim that the Dominion has made quite as much musical progress in the time as she has been able to show us. Visiting artists too often compare our audiences with those in Sydney or Melbourne, quite overlooking the fact that those cities have each nearly as big a population as is distributed over the whole of our country. i Dame Clara was, no douht, disappointed at the comparatively small audiences here, but the percentage of- people who attend concerts in New Zealand is certainly equal to if not greater than that in Australia. Dame Clara's attitude is easily" understood. Such comments by visiting artists are too often published as weighty and valuable criticism upon music in New Zealand, and are, no doubt, accepted as such by the public; but when the visitor opens proceedings by pointedly singing down to the supposed level of New Zealand he or she is likely to be regarded as biased by any who give the matter a thought.—l am, etc., E. C. CACHEMAILLE, 25th March: . SeCretary-