WORLD OF MUSIC

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 27 August 1927, Page 18

WORLD OF MUSIC

THE COMPETITIONS. On Monday next will open Hie Musical, ' Elocutionary and Dancing Competitions. This has grown in a- je" years from a very small 1 unction, originated as an intregal part of the Male Choir, to an institution which covers a wide range of art and offers scope to practically every student, in many branches to enter the lists against other competitors in music- 1 instrumental and vocal, solo and concerted, —elocution in all its branches, and lastly there is a third section, dancing, which this year forms no inconsiderable portion of the syllabus. The initiators among the male choir, and in this connection, one must specially mention the pioneer practically, the late Mr L. S. Tarrant—probably did not realise in their first sniali efforts how well they were building for the future. Certainly it has grown jjnto something that attracts wide attention and interest. The judges will be Messrs Cyril Towsey (music), Tlios. Harris (elocu-tion).-and Miss Daphne Knight (dancing), and each has had a wide experience with the work.

AMATEUB OPEBA. Next conies the Amateur Operatic society. Bight from the first it jump ed into popularity and has each year seen a continued aiid increasing success. but it is good to recall that in its early days Hawera was able to do good work B©cord-s will tell of the performance in the early nineties or ,sist century of Gilbert and Sullivan operas by a small but .enthusiastic band of artists. The germ then born lay dormant lor many years and then burst out into the present flourishing society. All who have witnessed a performance have been much impressed and delighted. If one might express a wish as to the- coming yeans, it is that at a very early date Gilbert and Sullivan be the el.osen composers and that one of .those most delightful and fascinating operas be selected. If, say, “Yeoman of the Guard,” “Pirates of Penzance,” or “The Mikado” could be secured, the selection would be most popular ai d would, one would believe, draw as •well as, if not better than, any modern opera.

ORCHESTRAL SOCIETY. Another society with a “next concert” in the offing is the Orchestral Society, arid subscribers and the public aie promised perhaps the best programme e> er put on in Hawera. It will lie looked forward to very keenly. SCHOOL BAND. The boys of the Main school under their tutor and conductor are very oi.sy preparing for the Wanganui competitions, where they are entered iri their class. They have tackled a big hurdle, / but the training and experience will be most valuable. CHOIR WORK. The Male Choir is introducing a novelty in including choir boys in their next concert. They have not decided in the work to be done at this year’s combined choral performance but one could wish the choice might be Haydn’s Creation. It is many years since this great work was periormed in Hawera and that was by the old Choral .Society under Mr Robert Foster, when the tenor solos were taken by the late Mr Herbert Graves, the soprano by the Herbert Graves, the soprano by the late Mrs Greenwood, and the bass by Mi- L H. McAlpine. NOTES.

The Auckland Choral Society will commence rehearsals next week of their next production —the ever popular Mascagni “Cavaleria Rustic-ana..” Mr Colin Muston, L.8.A.M., who recently conducted the opera “Aida” ior the Auckland Choral Society, will shortly proceed to Wellington to conduct the same opera for the Royal Wellington Choral Society.

“Tiie Australians are not a musicloving race to the extent that the Austrians anti Germans are,” said a leading musical man recently in Sydney. ‘‘This is shown by the iact that, although Australians endow libraries, museums, and zoological gardens, they do not endow orchestras or operas/’

Speaking to school pupils in London recently, a leading musical critic said: What ever else you do, make sure that ten minutes every day are devoted to school singing, corporate singing. The ten minutes had better come at the beginning of the morning—h\ mns or songs or both—for several reasons. First of all because you instil a large number of the best masters in the world into the minds of the children, and so give them a permanent possession of beauty and delight, and particularly because the practice ol corporate singing is of extraordinary value in the corporate life of the school.”

On November 17 of this year Gustave Slapofiski, the well-known conductor, will celebrate the jubilee of his association with Gilbert and Sullivan. He began in 1877 by conducting “The Soriorer,” and be has directed practically every one of those delightful operas.

Ludwig von Beethoven's piano, owned bv him from 1796 to his death Sii March 26, 1827, was lecently on public exhibition at the Centennial celebration at the salon of William Knabe and Co., Fifth Avenue, New York. The old piano is beautiful in design, but mute now except on two strings. It is owned bv Miss Lotta van Bnren, a collateral descendant of President van Huren, who is a noted player on old instruments, and after its public exhibition will be offered by her as a permanent memorial to the Cooper Union Institute.

A correspondent to the Auckland “f’era cl” recalls that as far back as 1866 Handel’s “Messiah” was performed in that city. At that time Auckland was the capital, and had also several British regiments stationed there, and no doubt that helped them considerably. Each regiment had a band, and they acted as orchestras ior various performances. The tirst conductor of the Choral Society was Mr. .Joseph Brown A curious instrument olnyed at a concert by a visiting Eastern musician, whose name is given "s Ab’-ben-Sou-Alle was called a Turkophone, combining the depth and ■volume of the trombone with the clear upper notes of the piccolo—it must ha-e been something unusual. The first festival held in New Zealand took place in May, 1858. when the “Messiah”—oratorio evidently formed a

great part of the work done —was performed in the morning and a secular ovogramme given in the afternoon.. Among the stewards were Hon. E. Stafford. F. D. Bell, J. Ollivier, and F G. Steward.