HOW MUSIC IS MADE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 28, 2 August 1926, Page 5

HOW MUSIC IS MADE

LECTURE BY MR. E. D. TAYLER

The Dominion Farmers' Institute Hall was crowded on Friday evening last when Mr. E. Douglas Tayler, Director of School Music for New Zealand, gave a popular address on "How Music Is Made" to the students and supporters of the Workers' Educational Association. The chair was occupied by Mrs. E. Maslen, in'the absence of the district president, Mr. B. Yeates, and Professor T. A. Hunter, director of Tutorial Classes.

The lecturer said the question was often I asked: ."How is music composed?" but it was not easy to say'what guide a composer had in making something out of nothing, for he was really only selecting and arranging material. Two*or more sounds, form harmony, and from a scale of twelve semi-tones which are related to each other, it is possible to form 3040 sounds. Some notes struck together create discord which grates on the ear of the listener, but when spread apart in different ways they are agreeable, and give different colour effects. Iv this variety of impressions we have re petition, and the use of several octaves, and the standards of musical beauty constantly vary. A fundamental point to be considered is: What permanent foundations have we on which to. build? In music's young days the key was limited to a fixed scale, but later, people began to make excursions into other keys, and so composition gradually developed. Al. music must have a locus or it cannot last, and aim and balance have bein essential features in every composition that lias stood the test of time. They are found in the humblest folk-song and the most glorious sonata. Strict rhythm goes with action, and represents a higher type 01 organisation than unrhythmical music By degrees the harmonies have improveo and the early tune has been polished up until it has become the folk song of the day. Palestrina in the 10th Century introduced the use of tenors in the singing of canons, and these were the forerunners of the modern anthem. This was the polyphonic or contrapuntal period, when music was built up on a foundation which has gradually . grown bigger and bigger. From the 15th to the 18th Century was known as the madrigal period, when that which was most spontaneous' in art was sacrificed to the ultra-polite, and artificiality - was the outstanding feature. Very few chords were used, and the introduction of' sharps and flats was made to avoid . awkward sounds rather than to give variety. Instrumental development was an important factor in the progress of music and the growth of the oratorio, and the orchestra culminated in the wonderful work or Bach. After Bach and Handel, tlie polyphonic game place to the harmonic, and composers thought less m tunes and more in chords. This is Known as the classical period, and the most perfect forms .of classical music were given to us by Beethoven. Later followed the Romanticists— Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, and many other great masters, who broke away from the rigidity and formality which had hitherto dominated musical composition, and introduced an originality ofthought and a romantic power of expression which had hitherto never been dreamed of.

Mr. Tayler then went on to explain the structural principles of composition, and illustrated his remarks in a novel and entertaining fashion by selecting a wellknown tune and making use of all the variations and embellishments of the composer's art to present the same melody in the varying guises—grave and gay, sen timental and severe—which have been known to musicians from medieval to modem times. Mrs. Tayler also assisted with vocal illustrations, and a very hearty vote of thanks was accorded to the lecturer for his entertaining address.

The next W.E.A. short-course lecture will be,given on Saturday, 7th August, in the Red Cross Room, Dixon street, when Professor B. E. Murphy will commence a series on economic questions dealing with some problems of Labour, and the first lecture will be entitled: "Man and Hi.' Environment."