ORGAN RECITALS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 97, 21 October 1931, Page 15

ORGAN RECITALS

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—ln to-night's/ "Post" appears a long and somewhat heated letter on the above subject, signed "Interested." Yodr co--respondent deplores the meagre attend^ ances at the weekly recitals, and does not mince his words. He remarks: "Let me say that the small audiences at the recitals are not only a disgrace to the' musical citizens'*"of Wellington,'but an insult to the city* organist! and the, organ." And there, is this further .comment: "The average attendance is well under fifty, so that, as there are thousands of professed music know-ails in Wellington, there must be a reason." _ '•;.■'■

I am far from certain what "Interested" means by "professed music know-alls." My experience of cultured musicians, to. whom alone Mr: Page's programmes could make any appeal, is.that they fully realise the truth of the old adage,. "Ars. Jonga, vita bjrevis," and are painfully'aware/of their limited knowledge, even after a lifetime, of study.'-But apart, from this consideration, there are some particular reasons' why organ music can never, be popular generally,, more especially in Wellington.' ■ ■■ ■■■■'.• :';■■'.:'/' <

Perhaps "Interested", has overlooked the elemental fact that the' quint-essential quality, of music, as it affects niusic-lovert in the mass, is rhythm:., and;'in. order to have rhythm,'we must1 have accent. Now on the ordinary type of .organ, to which the Town Hall organ' belongs, no accent is obtainable: consequently the organist is quite unable to play rhythmically, as the term usually is understood; all he can do is confined to the effort of creating an illusion of rhythm-^-quite another thing altogether, and appreciable Only- by the most expert ear. ■ " '■'• The plain truth, therefore, is that the ordinary organ, j despite its variety of registration, must be: ranked as a monotonous instrument, With the natural result that most of the music written for it sounds dull to air but a few: and even to these, too much of it is apt to pall on the ear, though, perhaps, not on the mind. By:many competent musicians the ordinary organ is looked upon a§ "a noisy abomination"~fts Dr. Percy Buck tells us in his book' "The Organ."' In other instruments the presence of what is called "overtones" is .recognised, and every step possible is taken to lessen these distressing effects, and to keep them within bounds. Owing to the organ's great susWining power, offending overtones are especially prominent: but no endeavour is made by organ-builders of the ordinary type to oope with the evil. On the contrary/ the practice_ of providing. "mixturestops" only intensifies the obnoxious overtones, and these stops further aggravate the trouble by being tuned to what is known .as "unequal temperament," whilst

the rest of the organ is tuned to "equal temperament."

All this, Sir, is, of course, rather too technical for the average listener: but if the latter cannot explain the cause of his repugnance ■to ordinary organ recitals he shows pretty plainly the effect thereof by staying away, and he can scarcely be blamed. :

It will have been noted that in my references to the organ thus far I have used the word "ordinary," and for the reason that I desire to differentiate the ordinary organ, such as we possess in our Town Hall, from those truly wonderful modern instruments, examples of which are chiefly to be found in the world's best cinema theatres. In these the problem of producing perfect rhythm has been entirely solved by the addition of percussion and other orchestral effects, and the music evolved out of these organs is decidedly not dull, whatever else may be urged against it. But quite apart from the disabilities attached to the Wellington City organ, as such, the organist has to contend with other difficulties equally beyond his control. Our.Town Hall is not conveniently situated, especially for access in bad weather: its seating accommodation leaves much to be desired, and finally, but most important of all, the acoustic properties of the large hall are so atrocious, except when packed to the doors, that it is extremely doubtful whether even the finest modern organ would prove any more musical than/the present one.: ■ At present, only the very softest tones are bearable. Directly we get a" "fortissimo" it is qne\;bis;,:blare', of indistinguishable noise. In' a lesser degree the same effect is noticeable with our large orchestras, the loud passages: are . completely dominated, by the brass instruments. This is, no fault of anybody's but that mischievous little god who mocks at builders and architects. "■ ;

Now, Sir, I have done my best to convince "Interested" that the small audiences at Mr. Page's, organ .recitals are- no reflection upon the city organist's ability, but nre due to causes over which neither the performer nor the listeners have the least control.—l am. etc..

h: D. AUSTIN