MUSICAL NOISE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 118, 14 November 1929, Page 28

MUSICAL NOISE

MODERN JAZZ BARBARIANS

Sir Hamilton Harty is not only one of England's leading conductors, but also a composer of high merit. When he addressed the Incorporated Association of Organists upon modern music his hearers expected hard hitting, and their expectations were realised. In Sir Hamilton Harty's judgment the mental disease from which the- present generation is suffering is "the fear of being left behind." The symptoms are a feverish enthusiasm fot anything that seems to be new, coupled with a complete lack of guiding principles, writes the London correspondent of the "Argus." ,

it sometimes seemed, he said, that composers of to-day might be gathered into two groups—those seriou3 pioneers seeking fresh methods of expression, even if it involved the destruction of traditional principles, and those charlatans who were consciously insincere, and whose chief aim was always "to go one better" in the production of ugly and discordant noises. Anyone could give indistinguished music a surprising air of novelty by seasoning it with unexpected discords and startling splashes of colour, but the absence of creative spirit' soon became evident. In Sir Hamilton Harty's opinion the principal emotions conveyed by " the music of to-day were restlessness, hardness, brilliancy, grotesqueness, and a certain sardonic humour, which was probably the most valuable. "Perhaps,'.' he added, "when historians look back upon the present epoch, they, will refer to it as.the machine age of music. They will note that as our daily life became more noisy and nerveshattering, so our music showed, in its resolute avoidance of sweetness and leisureliness, a similar tendency. They will look at the-compositions of the time with their jangling discords, their contempt of charm and delicacy, their ruthless disregard of all reticence, and they will examine with curiosity the battalions of percussion instruments we thought indispensable, and they will wonder why we set such store on mere ugliness of sound. They will see that in an age which considered itself to-be, I musically enlightened we permitted gangs of jazz barbarians to debase and mutilate our heritage of classical music. It is truly the machine age, and who can say what the outcome will be?"

"I often think," concluded Sir Ham* ilton Harty, "that until we see the silliness and futility of our present-day noise and hurry ana feverish interest, and think once more of leisure and quiet as the most desirable things in the world, we .shall look in vain for the coming of a really great composer. When he does ; appear it will surely be in a mope calni" and unhurried environment. .We are beginning to think that keenness of intellect and tautness of nerves are the chief necessities to a creative artist. Our genius, when he_ comes, will add greatness and generosity /of heart and quiet of mind to these qualities.. .We think we can hurry everything. We even try to hurry nature, but there are some things we cannot hurry, and one is the making of a musician."