WORLD of MUSIC

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 4 October 1924, Page 15

WORLD of MUSIC

NOTES. j Recently at the Brass Bands Empire . Contest at Thurm Hall (Halifax), the, winners were the Newcastle Steel Works Band, , the crack Australian combination. Their work was all of a i very high class, and secured very cordial prase from the judge. A cable this week notes the great success in competitions of this famous^hand. At Harwich (England) there is a fine band, composed of men from the big railway works there. A Home paper, commenting on their work, says they showed “brass band music of the highest class. Every section of the band is sound, the workmanlike manner in which the various items were tackled being very pleasing. The ‘Peer Gynt’ suite (Grieg), Liszt item, ‘Les Preludes,’ Tschaikowsky’s overture, ‘1812,’ and other similar selections were amongst their work.” G.B.S. ON MUSIC. | “It is no use playing Beethoven quartets to children who are going to be drummers in jazz orchestras,” said Mr Ci. Bernard Shaw, speaking at a debate on ' education at the Congress at Liverpool of the British Music Society. Tne point under discussion was whether euucation authorities should have a musical adviser. At the same time, he said, if they wanted children to learn and apjjreciate music, they must give them opportunities of hearing good music—! and, indeed, all sorts of music—that they might understand that music was a pleasant and desirable thing! There were many children of extraordinary musical faculty who had very bad musical tastes. The sort of advisory work which he thought that meeting had in mind ought to t be done in any particular district by active musicians in that district, and of course the teaching must be done by a teacher. It was very advisable that such teachers should come into contact, not with an adviser or an inspector, but with a lot of different musicians. It was quite true that*each musician the teachers ’ saw would abuse all the other musicians, but that was a very important part of the education of the teacher—(laughter). INDIAN BANDSMEN; Considerable disappointment' was caused, says an English paper, by the announcement that the band of the Prince of Wales’ Own 4/8 Punjabis, with pipers of the 2/10 Baluch Regiment, would not appear at. the People’s Park, Halifax, or at Lister Park, Bradford, recently. The band, which was then in London, consists of 55 native instrumentalists, and was to have presented an attractive programme, concluding with a military tattoo. Engagements had been secured for it at Bristol, Southport, Huddersfield, and other towns, including Halifax and Bradford, but all have been cancelled in. consequence of the announcement by the War Office that accommodation for the men could not be arranged in the towns for which the hand, was booked. The bandsmen are 1 of several castes, and three cooks are employed to prepare their food with the proper ritual essential to each section. Probably this fact increased the difficulty of finding temporary accommodation for them in the towns mentioned. WESLEYAN JUBILEE. LONG SERVICE AS ORGANIST. (Halifax Courier.) Fifty years of active wofk in the Wesleyan Methodist cause was fittingly celebrated at Skircoat Green Chapel recently at a reunion presided over by Aid. T. Hey, J.P., who also for half a century has been harmoniumist and organist at the chapel. Recalling personal relationships with the church, Aid. Hey said: “I remember vvhen we worshipped in that old preaching room we were very much troubled for the want of an accomj panist to play the harmonium at the ear rices. 1 can remember so far back that a young man called Garth came from Halifax to play, and wo paid him a most modest salary, but of course be grew out of it, and the only successor w© could find at that time was Mr Alf. Uttley, who volunteered, but, he said, would not be tied to it, . and 1 when he wanted to play the game of a “religious tramp” and go somewhere else on Sunday we were without. One day lie told my father that he was going to be away the following Sunday and my father said he would have a •boy of his own taught to play and then wo should never be without. On "the Monday morning he sent a man to buy a harmonium and to come once a week to teach me how to phiv it. 'That was in the old preaching room days. In less than 12 months—it happened Just a week or two after this place was opened—this man was going to he away again, and so my father'said to me “You will have to try and play next Sunday.” Well. 1 looked at the plan to see who was going to preach, and found that it was the second minister, Rev. G. Kenyon. I went to see him on the Saturday to get his hymns, took them home, and sorted out some tunes that would fit, and then when the morning came I discharged the duties as well as I could. When we returned home to dinner my father said “You will do,” and added, “We will never be without one again.” So, remarked. Aid. Hey, it had gone j i on from that day to this. I I In reference to the choir, which Aid. 1 Bev nohnted out formerly had seats in the gallery, it was not. he said, such as would obtain first prize at a contest, and be related an incident which was received with laughter. On one occa- i sion one of the males sang with his j music book upside down for a time i without knowing. The first harmonium was still in existence at a home where it was well cared for. The second harmonium, when the organ was installed, was transferred to the school. j Fifty years was a long time to be ip ! one job,' Aid. Hey said, approaching j the close of his address, when he announced that among congratulatory letters received was one from Sir Wm. Buhner, who remarked that such long service as Aid. Hey had given to .Skircoat Green as organist was almost- unbelievable. Sir William, besides sending a- contribution to the churcb. exoressed a hone that “not only will you be not out. when the time comes for you to retire, hut that you will carry out vour bat at-, as it seems to you. the proper time to do so.” VETER A N BELLRINGER. Wei! known through a long association with Halifax Parish Church as a bellringer. Mr Joseph Jonkinfion, of Ward’s Cottage Homes, died after a short illness. Mr .Tenkimoirs two brothers' and their father were all in their dav well-known members of the Parish Church bellringers, and ae soon

as he was old enough, at the age of 12, he began to visit the belfry, and later became a regular ringer, continuing long after his father and brothers (who diedbefore him) dropped out. The family has been represented in the belfry for very many years. Mr Joseph himself was a ringer for well over half a century. Up to Christmas of last year he was constantly at his post, being devoted to ringing. In his time he took part in many notable peals. His death -is a reminder that ringers from this church in the old days gained distinction in many parts of the country. In 1841 the Parish Church company, which included Rich- | ard Jenkinson, an ancestor of the (gentleman now dead, went to London jby coach and rang on the famous bells iof .Bow Church. There is in the tower jof the Halifax Church a record of this visit in the shape of an inscribed plate [presented to the ringers by the Society jof College Youths, London, as a token jof respect. THE SAILOR’S SONGS. In one of the series of fascinating stories of the voyages of the “windjammers” of the early days of the Dominion, Mr Henry Brett, of Auckland, quotes from the diary of Mr J. L. Kelly, a well-known New Zealand journalist and poet, concerning his life on one of those white-winged sailers. Dealing with sailors’ songs, he says:

Mr Kelly ran a small newspaper on hoard. The Algoa Bay Gazette and Boundless Ocean Advertiser, issued once a week in manuscript, which contins interesting particulars of the daily life. Being himself a poet, it was natural that Mr Kelly should he much struck bv the sailors’ “chanties” sung when doing any work in concert. Chanty, pronounced “shanty,” is evidently from the French “chanter,” “to sing.” Several other French Words are common at sea. For instance, in the Navy “matlow” is quite a common name for a bluejacket. It is, of course, the French word mate-lot,' which means a sailor. Chanties are never heard nowadays at sea, so it is interesting to read some ’of the rhymes Mr Kelly collected !on the passage. He says 'that the music was usually of the lowest order, seldom rising above a monotonous chant, in which, however, good time was kept. As a matter of fact, tlie whole idea of the chanty was to give the time, so that all hands could-pull together. “The words, as a rule,” writes Mr Kelly, “do not rise above j the merest doggerel, and the songs arte so often interlarded with slang sea phrases as to make them almost unintelligible”’ As a fair sample of the stings sting • when pumpihg~-the “barky” developted a leak on the voyage—he gives “Sacramento,” of which a verse runs: “Sacramento’s the land for me— Doodah, Doodah! Doodah, Doodah, Day! Chorus : Blow, blow, blow, For Oaliforny, 0; There’s plenty of gold in the land I’m told, On the banks of the Sacramento! There’s where the boys are gay and free! There’s where the boys are gay and free!” And so the song goes on, telling of the singer eventually coming back “with his pockets full of tin.” The chanty usually sung when setting sails was the well-known “Whisky Johnny”: “Whisky is the life of man, Whisky, O; Johnny, O'!” And so on, whisky being responsible for numerous calamities in the history I of the singer and his family. Mr Kelly confesses to being attract;ed by something in the chanties, although they were so crude. “I confess,” he writes, “to experiencing an ‘eerie’ sensation when I awoke one morning about two o’clock, with a gale blowing* and heard above the howling of the blast half a score of stronglunged sailors bawling out the wellknown ditty beginning: “As Sankey and Moody sat up on a tree— Sing Yo, Ho! Blow a man down! As Sankey and Moody sat up on a tree— Give us some time to blow a man j down!” Long-Winded.' I In these chanties one man usually ! took the air, while -all the voices joined jin the chorus, the effect produced be- ! iiig rather pleasing. The sound of the j mate’s ’’belay!” was the only thing ! that brought these chanties to a close. Mr Kelly says the soloist would improvise as he went and some of them were of an interminable length. A favourite chanty was “Ranzo,” - which told of “Young Ranzo, who took a notion to sail the Western Ocean,” : and fell in with a wonderful captain. : who gave him rum and brandy and l taught him navigation. This chanty ; was an effective one. Each line ended 5 with “Ranzo (.)!” anil was sung twice. > j Another fine old chanty quoted by )|Mr Kelly was “Rio Grande.” each r verse ending with : ‘I “We’re hound for the Rio Grande!” , ! A chanty called ‘‘Blow, Boys, Blow!” 1 | which ran into several verses, told this > i thrilling story : s “A Yankee shin came down the river, I What do you think they had for 1 dinner ? Thcv had sharks’ fins and monkey’s liver,” f only each line was repeated, and be- , tween the repetitions, “Blow, boys, ’ blow,” was interpolated.

TO A SKYLARK. Sweet singer, poised twixt earth and heaven, Or searing np‘a spiral way, Thy treasure trove to ail is given, Each new born day. 'E'en Ruth, the Moabitish maid, Would hear thy song o’er Boa/,’ grove. And glean and garner in the glade, Music and love. We search .for 'thee with wistful eye, Mid clouds that once a shadow cast, And in the temple of the sky Find thee at last. You sing to make a happier world, As man should do, to do his Lest. ITo live below, when wines are furled A. heavenly guest. So small a bird: so large a soul, j A tiny speck—infinity—jSo frail a form, comprising all Eternity. .Material, witli an earthly nest; } Immortal, and you fill all space, !A life divine within thy breast; ; Ami Cod we trace. ! WIiITKLKY LUMP. | HANDBELL RINGERS. j The Yorkshire Handbell Ringers’ Association's seventeenth annual tuneringing contest was held recently at

Sunny r Vale, Hipperhoime, and attracted a large number of visitors. In the first competition (unlimited hells) there were six entries, but; only four Ijands competed. The test piece selected. was “Banditenstreiche” (von Suppe). The second competition - was limited to single bells, and attracted nine entries. The test piece in this section was “Oberon,” from Weber’s opera arranged by Oscar Verne. Mr Hariy Barlow, Prestwich, in giving the awards, said it was quite a pleasure to hear such beautiful’ringing, not only in the first section, but in the second section as well. He had been actively associated. with handbell ringing for the past 30 years, part of this time he was a ringer, so he knew the difficulties they had to contend- with. The first band (Crosland Moor Public)was a splendid combination, the trebles and basses kept well together,... and played as if by one man, and well, deserved the award.