MUSICAL ENGLAND

Evening Star, Issue 18714, 16 August 1924, Page 19

MUSICAL ENGLAND

POWER OF THE PERSJk The musical position in England, says Dr J. Warriner, is most interesting. The Old Country now is passing through a time of transition. This it has in common with the rest of the world. But it is a hopeful time—a period from which almost anything may grow, and in which it in good to be alive. Appointed examiner in New Zealand for the Royal Academy of Music, Dr Warriner arrived in Wellington by the liner Ruahine. To a 1 Times ’ representative ho developed ideas of the musical position. Despite the renaissance of music, the passing of the post-Mendelssohn period in England, he said, life is no easier for her composers. Elgar was just as big a man twenty years ago as ho is to-day. , But he was not known. Coming from a family supported then and even now by a music shop, a first violin in tho Worcester Theatre, an organist in tho local church, ho was far from being the world-famed Composer, tho holder of the Order of Merit, the man whom His Majesty was graciously pleased to honor with a knighthood, and the adored of choral societies. And the difference was due to what? The fact that his wife inherited money; the fact that he was suddenly freed from tho necessity of making a living, and that he could devote all his time and inspiration to his work.

Walford Davies, now principal of the Welsh Academy, was given an appointment as organist at a crucial moment of his career. Tlus his known gift for composition brought him, and now he is an established man. And with other modem men it is the same. Gustav Holst derives an income from his three schools, and from his connection with tho “ Old Vic.” Arthur Bliss has private means. Rutland Boughton was aided for years by what of old wan called “ patron.” But mayhap there aro other men equally as good who are yet unknown because of their financial troubles. And this is by no means new. One remembers the symphony which Berlioz never wrote, because he felt that he could not afford the expense of performance once he put down his teeming thoughts on paper: or the poverty of Sohubort, To publish a work, to have it performed, aro expensive things. in the last analysis every question Is a financial one, said Dr Warriner, quoting Bcaconsfiold. The pressure of tiro financial side is felt in England no less than in Now South Wales. And the cry of the musicians is for some sort of State assistance or endowment. There are not enough organists’ positions to supply all our Balfour Gardiners and Boughtons. Municipal orchestras and an endowed ropera could help, says the doctor, but no more. Ultimately the problem is one of education, like so many others in this world. It takes an educated mind to appreciate music—a musically educated mind. And at this education the Royal Academy aims. “ Give us the pupils young enough and we willdo it,” is its war cry. Once the mind of a child is musically developed it will no longer ba satisfied with' cheap music.

It will have discrimination, an appreciation of form, the beginning of being a connoisseur. It will no longer be a parallel for the servant who prefers tho ‘ Family Herald ’ to tho treasures “of literature. With its annual list of 60,000 candidates the academv drives on.

Yet musical taste is changing, advancing, says Dr Warriner. From the days of the, last century, when the public’s idea of music was Balfo and Wallace, it has gone ahead. One instance of it is in tho fact that gramophone companies devote an ever larger portion of their output to standard and to modem works.

But there is yet a long road to traverse, even in opera. The Carl Rosa Company always made money in the country but lu.i it in London. And the Carl Rosa was the training ground for many finp singers. To-day the fate of the British National Opera Company is a very uncertain one. It has done good work, but gives no one a sense of its security. Yet the position may be exaggerated easily enough. When people talk of tho intense musical nature of tho Continental peoples they lose sight of tho fact thta tho receipts from tho public could not possibly pay for many of the works performed. Even in Germany this is tho case. What is needed in England, equally as elsewhere, is money. It is a case for a millionaire.

On our modem composers Dr Warrinor was reticent. '‘The position is peculiar; much of the work clone is experimental,” ho said. “We have had it nil before as far back as in Monteverdo’s time. He was a great man, but the world was not ready for him, and ho was voted a madman. His ideas and hia harmonies were equally condemned. It seems incrcdjblo now. And one must not lose sight of the fact that even Robert Schumann, in his capacity of musical critic, declared Wagner’s ‘ Tannhauser ’ overture, which to-day is blared by every seaside band, to he chaotic, unplayable, and absurd. ” In the face of this I should not like to diocla.ro that anyone, Arthur Bliss, or anyone else, was not potentially a really great man.” Our ideas of music evolve, thinks the doctor, and ono cannot tell what the future will appreciate. Therefore he was not to be drawn into making comparisons. But as a personal opinion he delivered the statement that ” Holst is probably our best man.”

Holst, the composer of ' The Perfect Fool,’ ‘ The Planets,’ and 1 Savitri,’ tho employer of Eastern scales and the master of orchestration and lover of good melodics, Dr Warrinor has chosen.