WORLD OF MUSIC

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 28 May 1927, Page 7

WORLD OF MUSIC

The Wanganui Competitions Society (Incorporated) will hold its annuel festival in August next, commencing on the 27th of that month. A comprehensive schehule has been prepared, and valuable special prizes allotted to each section. The judges are: Singing, Mr. Len. Barnes (Wellington); elocution, Miss Ilardinge Malt by (Wellington); instrumental, Mr. 11. Godier (Wellington); dancing, Mrs. Tabor Gregory (Hamilton). The accompanist will be Mrs. W. H. K. Gilmour, A.T.C.L., L.A.8., of Palmerston North.

Writing of the performance recently at the famous Covenfc Garden of the world popular opera “11 Troviato.re,’ a correspondent- recalls: The last jierfonnanee of that opera at Covent Garden was in 1895, when Taimagno wasthe Manrieo. Now the newcomer John O’Sullivan will sing the role, while the Leonora will be Frida. Laider, and the Azucena Marie 01 czevvska —a curious incursion of .accomplished German and Austrian .singers into Italian opera*.”

Music-lover* in London have received a- severe shock with the announcement that tlie new Queen’s Hall Orchestra, which, under .its famous conductor, S-n; Henry Wood, has been a feature ol London life for more than 30 years, is to be disbanded. Finance is, of course, at the root of the trouble. __ The first “Proms” were given in 1895, and the Symphony Concerts began, in the next year• Never once in the 32 years' has the Queen’s Hall Orchestra ended the season with, a .credit balance, For a long period the deficit was made good by Sir Edgar Speyer, the financier, but he ceased his subsidy m a result of violent attacks, that were made upon him, during the war. Messrs Chappell and Company, the well-known firm of music publishers, who have been responsible for the Queen’* Ha.ll concerts, are reputed to have lost L’bO.OlH) by this means during- 20 years. Sir Landon Ronald considers it deplorable, that Britain is unable to support one orchestra while America' supports dozens.

The immediate future is going to be a" particularly interesting time musically; all of the societies are getting ready for first performances and all arc putting on distinctly good programmes. The public may look forward to something very good from all the societies.

Within .18 months of beginning the work. Messrs Gillett and Johnston, bell founders, Croydon, have .completed the largest carillon in the world. It will be shipped to Canada after Faster, and, with an electric clock, will be placed in the tower of the Houses of Parliament at Ottawa. The carillon, which commemorates the peace of .1913 and the sacrifices of Canada in the war, consists of 53 bells, weighing as many tons, mounted in a huge steel framework weighing 22 tons. An inscription on the largest bell of 10 tons is in French and English, and round the top maple leaves have been moulded. This bell will be the second largest in Canada and third largest on the American continent. The clock will control five of the bells for striking the Westminster chimes. On the fourth quarter bell is an inscription stating that its casting was witnessed by Mr Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada, last November. It is proposed to inaugurate the carillon on Dominion Day, July 1, and the hope has been expressed by Mr Mackenzie King that the King, from the capital of the Empire, will, by means of radio, cause the bells to peal out in the capital, of Canada. It is expected that wireless listeners, not only in Britain, but in the farthest outposts of the Empire, will hear the chimes.

Dame Ethel Smyth, in the course of a letter to “The' Times’’ writes: — The music life of England is everyone ’s business. Up to the present time it lias -centred about Queen’s Hall; then suddenly a bomb fell. A month has now elapsed; meanwhile does the world at large realise that, unless somedefinite decision is taken within the next few weeks, it will be too late to save either the “Proms” or the situation generally?

The Queen's Hall is the only good concert hall in London; -the “Proms” have become what one may call an indispensable and vitalizing source of our music life, affording an outlet fof voung talent whether creative or executive; further, at the “Proms” and the New Queen’s Hall Orchestra’s Symphony Concerts are given 99 per cent, of the new works, whether native or foreign, that are heard in London. If all this is to drop out of our music life simply because no one feels, equal to making a move, Ave stand disgraced.

MUSIC AND ITS CHARMS.

AN INTERESTING ADDRESS.

THE BEAUTIFUL IN LIFE

*‘ He has given us a great deal to think -about,” Avere the words Avith which Rotarian A. L. Muir commented upon Mr E. Douglas Tayler’s address to the Gisborne Rotary Club at its last luncheon. Mr Tayler is supervisor of musical education in the State schools. In his opening remarks Mr Tayler said that in the past musical education had been looked upon as an extra. During the past year fifiO gramophones had gone into New Zealand schools, or one gramophone every tAvo days; but he knoAv of one school committee Avliich refused to get a gramophone for the school because it was “merely to amuse the kids.” Music, he said, avis an important and intense form of life. Amusement was of great benefit to huinanity; it had its Amlue as an education, bringing into its action some form of emotion. The team co-operation and training for the proper conduct of our games Avas a training for later life. Music gave a similar training. In our schools, added Mr Tayler, most of the time Avas given to training the child’s -mind and body, but in neglecting to train the imagination they neglected -to train the emotion, and for all they kneAV they might he training a first-class animal. Training only the body might make a good athlete, but the result might be loss of temper and self-control as the result, of neglecting the emotions. The athlete would then lose his place in the Avorld of athletics. “If vve neglect to train the emotions or the imagination we leave the tAvo dominating factors of human life,” added the speaker, as he went on to say that it was most urgent when considering education to also promote the emotional expression and imagination. The imagination gave the great creations of to-morroAV.

In the old world men had made errors in ciA-ilisation as the result of lack of imagination and emotional control. When people gave A r cnt to music it shoAved an overflowing of happiness, but not only did happiness take expression in music but sadness also. This Avas evident in negro slave songs, which

_ y were expressions of pent-up feelings. In the primitive states of life the expressions were not of a very high order, as with barbaric tribes and the crying of a baby. The fine arts offered a solution of keeping out the black side of life; this was done by taking the dark things of life and issuing them in a, beautiful form.