OPTIMISTS' CLUB.

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 111, 6 November 1929, Page 7

OPTIMISTS' CLUB.

Music plays an important part in the conduct of the Wellington Optimists' Club, but in introducing Mr. X Branscombe, of the Westminster Glee Singers, at the weekly- luncheon recently, the chairman referred modestly to the "musical attempts" of the preliminary stages of the gathering. The. guest later said that though he had visited a very wide range o£ clubs based on similar altruistic lines, and in America they ran to great lengths, he had never heard a better ''attempt" than the musical elements of the present proceedings. He took it as atribute to the profession to which he belonged. The subject' of Mr. Branscombe's remarks was "The Place of Music To-day, .What it Does, and How it Does it." hearers were, invited to consider the almost universal appeal and use of music. He began with the highest and greatest use, the devotional, and remarked upon the value of niusiu in stimulating - patriotic emotions. The .work of this club and similar organisations, Rotary ami many others, provided another example. The musical elements stimulated and developed the feelings of brotherhood and good feeling. Another use was feund in the sea chanties, some of them three hundred years old. Last but not least, the speaker claimed for music a definite healing and restorative power, and quoted examples. Passing to what music is, the speaker stated that it was really matter in vibration. Music was a perfect illustration/, of the reality of the unseen world. The thoughts of men were forces in more than the generally accepted 6ense of merely mental force. They had a dqfinite relation to the vibration of matter/" The audience was counselled to eschew barbaric and degraded forms of music, and to assure themselves that the sources of all their musical activities were pure. The thanks of the club were extended with musical honours.