TESTS FOR YOUNG SINGERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 20, 25 January 1938, Page 8

TESTS FOR YOUNG SINGERS

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—Teachers of singing, and especially those with knowledge of the art of voice production in its relation to the anatomy of the throat, the natural, as distinct from the intensive, development of the vocal cords, the science of correct breathing, and the hundred and one other considerations which are of such vital importance in the training of a. singer, must have regarded with mixed feelings the recent commercialised "quest" in , New Zealand for a singer in any way comparable with a young Canadian celebrity of most undoubted musical, dramatic, and intellectual attainments. Having no personal interest in the matter beyond that of one of the general public, perhaps I may. be per-

milted 1.0 offer v few observation.'! on a Hubjccl which deeply concerns the welfare of those whom we hope to be the singors of tho future.

History has Known us that at long intervals there are born into the world children who arrive at a certain intellectual maturity at a comparatively early age and who march to further heights with the passage of time. Names which occur readily to the mind are those of the Admirable Crichton, Mozart, Handel, Menuhin, and so on. Undoubtedly Deanna Durbin may be regarded as one of these rarae ayes. Her voice, at 15, has the ripeness and richness of 21, her vocal technique is almost impeccable, and behind all there is a quick, eager, understanding brain, most noticeable when singing with a full symphony orchestra. It may be too early to put her in the Mozart class, but to suggest, as has been attempted, that we can produce Deanna Durbins like "asparagus in May" is absurd. Children of tender years, like the 800 or so entrants in the recent competition, have naturally voices of insignificant strength and limited range. These voices have been put to great and unaccustomed strain in the past few weeks in the endeavour to master songs quite beyond their natural compass, and the ultimate consequences can only be disastrous. They have been making overdrafts on a reserve which should have been carefully husbanded for the next seven years or so, and I venture to suggest that in 1945 there will be many fewer good singers in New Zealand than there should be.

As one of the pioneers of the musical competition festivals at Home, I have been privileged to come in contact with such eminent adjudicators as Walford Davies, Harvey Grace, T. F. Dunhill, Granville Bantock, Adrian Boult, Hugh Roberton, and many others. One and all they roundly condemn solo competitions for young singers, but welcome heartily children's choirs in simple folk songs, etc., believing that team work is the best training ground for the coming prima, donna. I wonder what the reaction of some of these gentlemen would have been to the exacting tests imposed on young singers in this quest.—l am, etc., BURLINGTON R. CADE.