WORLD OF MUSIC

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 5 February 1927, Page 18

WORLD OF MUSIC

MUNICIPAL BAND. Life is very strenuuos for members of the Municipal Band at present, and has been for some, time, owing to preparations for the forthcoming contest, in Wellington. They are certainly showing a marked benefit from the work, and their tone and style are vastly better than was the case some months ago.

A very fine cornetist from Palmerston North has been engaged for the contest, 'and people of Hawera will have an opportunity of hearing him at the concert on February 18. MALE CHOIR. A most satisfactory annual meeting was the lot of the Choir this week, the best and most enthusiastic they have had for perhaps fifteen years. Everything promises well for the season. A deputy conductor will be appointed to take charge until Mr Fox is free. ORCHESTRAL SOCIETY. The dependence on Mr Fox of the musical instutions is markedly shown by the fact that the Orchestral Society has done what the Male Choir are going to do, appoint a deputy. Mr Barley has made a good start, and the work is going ahead well. BAND CONTEST - JUDGE. Says an exchange of the appointment , of Mr :W. Halliwell as judge:— f What a signal honour! To travel half the globe to act as judge. What a triumph for a Wigan boy! For Mr Haliwell is one of Wigan’s -sons, born at Roby Mill, Upholland, who entered into his musical career as a cornettist in the Upholland Band, consequently -becoming its conductor. Later joining the Wigan Rifles, he was promoted to bandmaster, and eventually attained the rank of senior bandmaster to the whole brigade of territorials.

From thence onwards his career has been one triumphal march from contest fo contest, from conquest to conquest. From Land’s End to John o’ Groat’s,- wherever band music is practiced and appreciated, Mr Halliwell’s fame is known, and his name honoured and acclaimed. LATE SIR HENRY BRETT. The late Sir Henry Brett had all his life been an enthuiastie and devoted love.r of music. In his young days he became a member of the Auckland Choral Society, and he was for manv years the loading baritone soloist. He continued his active association with choral music until a year or two ago, attending practice regularly. Only a comparatively short time since the writer met him on the ferry boat going- across to take his part . in. the chorus of the performance of the oratorio “Creation,” and he was as keen then as any young man. He was also very fond of the organ, and the writer understands he often played at. the Anglican Church at' Takapuna. Sir Henry was, too, a liberal patron of music, and his- greatest gift to the people of Auckland was- the magnificent pipe organ in the Town Hall, which will always be a memorial to his love of the art of music.

'By his death New Zealand has lost one of her most liberal supporters in the. world of music. CONFERENCE OF MUSICIANS. 'The- conference of musicians in land was a most, interesting function and was well attended by musicians from all parts of the North Island. Of the papers read one was by Mr J. Holmes Runnicles, of Palmerston North and well known in Hawera. It is hoped -that the Registration Bill will be put into law next session. The next conference will be in Christchurch. MUSIC IN CHURCHES. A novel experiment, which so far has been singularly successful, has been made at St. Barnabas ’ Anglican Church, Sydney, where a quartette of professional singers is heard at the evening service in selections from the great'composers. No special advertising was done, the idea being to ascertain how far such music appealed to the tastes of worshippers. The result has been most gratifying, the congregations showing a substantial improvement on successive evenings. In a recent address in Christcluireh, Bishop West-Watson referred to the possible influence of the broadcasting of highclass music on the standards of musical taste in parish churches. “Wireless broadcasting of the best music,” said the Bishop, “is likely to raise the general standard of musical appreciation, and this will certainly lead to a demand for the best music in church services.” There was a strong movement in England among church musicians towards raising the standard of devotional music, and the bias of that movement was toward simplicity and intelligibility. THE PIPES. “The music of the Scottish pipes is not of the kind that hath charms to soothe the savage breast,” says writer of Passing Notes in the Otag<- Jv Daily Times. Quite otherwise; it is “archaic, semi-barbarous, stimulating,” say the books. Speaking for myself, the first skirl of the pipes sets my pulsing jumping, and I feel a tightness of skin across the cheekbones. The melody scale of the “chanter” is not in itself barbarous; it is the scale of the black keys of the piano, on which keys any genuine Scotch melody may usually be made out; there are no semitone intervals. The barbaric stimulus of the bagpipe, skirl is due to the ruthless persistence of the drones, an unchanging bass that is in all kinds of dissonance delightful dissonance with the melody. The pipes are no more a parlour instrument than the big bass drum. Yet in Highland regiments the officers’ mess is enlivened at dinner by a regimental piper, who arrives at the wine and walnuts stage,' struts round and round the table, blowing his blast, and is- rewarded on exit with a glass of wine, or perhaps, with what is more to his liking, a tot of rum. Essentially the bagpipes give the note of war; there is no music to which soldiers march better. Listen to a commanding officer of the old school: — I’ll take my men to a weddingwith the brass; I’ll lead ’em into action with the fifes; but -give me the pipes and I’ll take ’em through hell and back again.