THOUGHTS ABOUT MUSIC

Evening Star, Issue 21638, 6 February 1934, Page 6

THOUGHTS ABOUT MUSIC

[By L.D.A.]

“ Music gives tone to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to tho imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything.”—Plato. If the most ardent radio fan were asked: When was music first broadcast? lie would probably hazard a date somewhere within tho last twelve or fifteen years, which is only correct if applied to wireless. But the transmission of music over Jong distances goes back about forty years. And not merely that, but'the mechanical orchestra and its inevitable concomitant—the throwing of orchestral musicians into the unemployed market —were foreshadowed at about the same period. The following paragraph is taken Irom the Manchester ‘ Courier,’ dated January 20, 1805: “ A somewhat alarming story comes to hand from Hungary. A ball look place in the town of Tcmesvar, preceded by a concert, at which the audience listened (by moans of loud-speak-ing telephones fixed at intervals round the walls of the hall) to a military band which was playing many miles away at Arad ; tho listeners also heard operatic selections relayed from various theatres in Budapest, and vocal items transmitted Irom Szegodin. After tho concert the hall was cleared, and hundreds of couples danced for hours to music which was being performed even further afield. Tho possibilities opened up by this piece of news are startling, to ‘ say the least. One can envisage the time when one orchestra in a town will be sufficient to provide music for a dozen or more dancers in divers other towns simultaneously. It requires little imagination to foretell a shocking dislocation of musical supply and demand if this new principle bo extended. For, obviously, if an orchestra or singer can be turned on, or disseminated by electrical agency, to a dozen different places at onco, a unit will suffice where twelve would previously have been required. And yet, in the face of this impending calamity, our schools and academies are manufacturing well-trained musicians in constantly increasing numbers!” “ To celebrate the inauguration of tho Post Office telephone trunk lines, a novel concert was held yesterday at St. Martin’s-le-Grand. whereby large audiences in all the chief cities and towns of the United Kingdom enjoyed a lengthy programme of music transmitted electrically from London. The trunk lines now erected afford conimnnication from London to the Midland counties. Wales, Scotland, and Ireland; and, in response to official invitations. hundreds of distinguished guests were assembled at Cardiff, Bristol, Birmingham, Hull, Leicester, Derby, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin, and many other important centres, to listen to an excellent programme of vocal and instrumental music performed in London. The audiences at all these places, without exception, declared that ‘ the reception was perfect,’ and that everything sounded as distinctly as though the concert were near at hand.” » « • • Does this not road almost like a description of a modern wireless broadcast? No wonder musicians were alarmed by the prospect thus menacingly unfolded; but their fears proved groundless for tho time being, for no further developments in this direction occurred during the ensuing twenty years or so. And, even when radio broadcasting became an established fact, it remained for tho talkies to nut the coup de grace to the struggling professional musician. What a complete revolution lias been achieved in the cinema theatre in five short years! The young folk who go to the pictures nowadays have never heard *a live orchestra therein, and probably would be bored stiff if real musicians played real music. As tho bad sailor said, on a stormy first day of tho week; “Sick transit inglorious Monday! ” * » » * On second thoughts I may be wrong about this, for the success of Miss Iris Mason at the Empire Theatre shows that interest in corporeal harmony is by no means dead. And it does not seem to have occurred to anybody that a lady organist is really no novelty, since Miss Mason is merely perpetuating the fashion set by St. Cecilia some years back — about 333 a.d, I fancy, or almost exactly fifteen centuries ago But one sincerely hopes that the “ warm reception ” accorded Miss Mason will not rise in temperature tp the degree experienced by her famous prototype, who, we are told, was placed by some inconsiderate persons “in a dry bath with fire beneath a worse fate than the stake, because it partakes of the treatment of braised steak. Not content with this discourtesy 7, some one —presumably with an axe to grind—was thereafter deputed to bring an axe to bear on the lady’s neck. Taking one thing with another, therefore, the victim would seem to have telt justified in fearing that every 7 moment migh prove her “ neckst,” so to speak; but this is mere frivolous conjecture. * * * * Those who now read of St. Cecilia’s unhappy plight for the first time will, perhaps, gather why she made no attempt—as far as we know—to escape from her dilemma; in the heat of the moment she probably was atraid of jumping out of the frying pan into tho fire. But, it may be asked, how came this unfortunate damsel, whom tradition credits with having boon the first female organist, into such a parlous predicament. It is a long story, which considerations of space will not allow me to relate in detail. Briefly, the parents of St. Cecilia forced her into an unwilling matrimonial alliance with a young gentleman who loved her so much that ho agreed to treat her only as a sister. At what exact period the rumour got around that she excelled in music is not known ; the chroniclers even disagree as to the precise nature of her accomplishments, for whilst some hold that she invented the organ, Dryden, in ‘Alexander’s Feast/ says: At length Divine Cecilia came, Inventress of the vocal frame. This, to say the least, is rather ambiguous. It also reminds me of another example of ambiguity. The first organs were supposedly modelled on the socalled “Pipes of Pan.” An engineer of my acquaintance maintains that the modern system of drainage is also through the pipes of pan. To return to St. Cecilia, it was not until about the year 1500 that she was officially adopted as the patron saint of music; but how or why this should be so, or, in particular, when November 22 was consecrated to her memory, nobody knows. Since that time, however, Cecilian societies have spiling up all over the musical world, and Cecilian festivals have formed the basis of much fine music-making. Religious bigotry was tin; traditional prime factor in the martyrdom of St. Cecilia; but after

this long interregnum one camot dogmatise on the matter. She illicit have been “ done in ” by some jealois rival, for aught we know. Let us hqie that the lady now •deputising for St. Cecilia at the "Empire Theatre may meet a happier late.