TRINITY COLLEGE EXAMINATIONS

Evening Star, Issue 20635, 7 November 1930, Page 3

TRINITY COLLEGE EXAMINATIONS

— ———— ADDRESS BY DR FORD

Music teachers and candidates interested in the recent practical examinations conducted by the Trinity College assembled in the Bristol Piano Company’s Concert Chamber last evening to hear a short talk by Dr C. Edgar Ford, the visiting examiner. Dr Ford reviewed the playing in the examinations, and gave those present helpful advice, illustrating his" points at the pianoforte. The Rev. Professor Hewitson. chairman of the local centre, presided. The lecturer introduced his subject by referring to the fact that many people were under the impression that good music was dull. This was entirely their own fault, for it rested with the player whether the music should be dull or not. Certainly dull music could never be good music. He had three subdivisions of his subject, and they were elocution, musical examinations, and advice which he hoped would be of value to all.

Elocution, said the speaker, was not a study of affectation. One’s pronunciation should be tho same when reciting as in ordinary speech. He gave several instances of people whom he had met who recited excellently, but were almost crude in their everyday speech. Every sentence, at all times, should be not only a sentence of words, but it should also be a sentence _of music. Nearly all forms. of speech imperfection were attributable to some kind of laziness. In referring to musical examinations, Dr Ford said that he considered that the standard of playing was as high m Dunedin as in any other part of the dominion. Interpretation was one of the most important branches of playing. Every piece of music had a message for its hearers. _ He went on to explain that tho different forms of art, such as painting and music, were moans of expression. ' A painting or a piece of music expressed something that could not be expressed in words. It was therefore the duty of students to discover the means of bringing out tho message in each picco of music they pl TTie three things to he remembered at all times were tone, rhythm, and atmosphere, for they were the means by which expression was given to the meaning of a piece of music. Dr Ford made his, meaning clear by demonstration on tho piano, and at tho same time ho pointed out tho more usual of the mistakes into which players fell. . At the conclusion oi the address 1 rofessor Hewitson thanked Dr Ford tor his interesting talk, and the lecturer, by -special request, gave several piano solos.