WORLD OF MUSIC

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 14 January 1928, Page 16

WORLD OF MUSIC

THE NEW SEASON

The Municipal Band seems to go ahead with practically no breaks, and it says much for the conductor that he always appears able to attract good men or to make young ones efficient. The Orchestral 'Society looks forward, too, to a period of renewed and useful activity. Their numbers are still very good and they start the year with a big handicap*in their favour because they chose their selections before breaking up last year and had a certain amount of practice thereat. Their numbers for the first concert will include “Finlandia,” Tone Poem (Sibelius); .Minnehaha Suite (Coleridge Taylor, arranged by Percy Fletcher); “Morning, Noon and Night” (Suppo); “La Bolieme” (Puccini); and a new orchestration of “The Kosary,” arranged' by Adolphe hotter. Those with one other number will form the programme, and practices will commence on next Tuesday week. An interesting effort on behalf of the Hawcra Municipal Band will be the revue organised by Mrs Macbeth to be staged in the near future. Tlie first practice held in the band room on Tuesday evening was a great success and promises well for the venture. The Methodist Choir, Hawera, have decided to perform Stainer’s fine Passion work, “The Crucifixion,” for the week before Easter. St. Mary’s Choir will perform the same work as last year, and both choirs will shortly start practice for Easter.

NOTES.

Bandsmen all over the Dominion will have learnt with much sorrow of the death by drowning in Wellington Harbour of the very capable young cornet soloist of the Wellington Tramways Band last week. He had been out in the Dominion from Scotland only a couple of years and was looked on as a very capable player. His loss to his band will be very much felt. The Gazette notice in London marking the winding up of the famous Besses of the Barn Band will have a particular interest for the people of Hawcra because many have very pleasant recollections of the visit paid by the band to this town. The playing of the band stands out as a “high-water mark" in the history of band performances in this town.

How, exactly, is the Education Department, fostering music in schools .'by appointing a lecturer at the Training College, and then placing his pupils either in subordinate positions in town or else in the country? (asks “The Pied Pioer” in the Christchurch “Star”). The scheme will never be successful until primary school children have direct teaching from a competent authority.' _ , , •The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, under Wilhelm Furtwaengler, will give a series of concerts at England, this winter. - Dr Eeo Blech, conductor of the Berlin State Opera House Orchestra, led the London Symphony Orchestra in two concerts last month. Dr Blech, whose work was new to London audiences, was a pupil of Humperdincks. The City of London Civil Band is planning a world tour with the object of attacking what its director, Emile Gilmer, calls “the abomination of jazz.’’ “Our initial tour,’’ he explained, 11 is planned for 12 months, and there is reason to believe that in the United States, the home of jazz, we shall have a successful tour. One of our proposals is to take jazz right to bits before the public’s eyes and expose its fallacy, showing the public how it is constructed and scored compared with real music.’’

pared with real music. Writing of tlie musical bodies of the . city, the Christchurch “Star” says the Orchestral Society, under Mr Angus ■ Gunter, lias shown by far the most i marked advance during the year, 'both in the quality and the scope of its programmes. The society’s three concerts, including the Beethoven Centenary, have been the most ambitious, the finest, and the most successful of its ■ career. “Master of the King’s Musick.” — Sir Edward Elgar, 0.M., who is now in his 7.lst year, has geen created a Knight of the Victorian Order in the ; New Year honours. Elgar is the great- : est modern English composer, and has 1 been master of the King’s Musick since 1 1924. Apart from symphonies and concertos, his compositions include “The Dream of Gerontius,” “The Apostles” ■ and King Olaf.” Air Kenneth Impett, the young, singer 1 who left Auckland a year or two ago, has settled in Milan. The director of] the Milan Conservatoriuin was so im- j pressed with Mr Impett’s voice that he offered him free tuition in that institution. Mr Impett expects to ‘be in Milan for some time to come. To Stravinsky, says an American critic, the world owes more, perhaps, for his introduction of rhythmical variations than for all his other unique and colourful additions to music. From 1700 to 1900 rhythm had atrophied. It was expected—even demanded —that a composition should continue throughout in one- rhythm, and the first attempts to alternate rhythms were denounced as

monstrous. Stravinsky rose above the first storm of criticism. Scriabine broke down more barriers with his . simple cross rhythms; and in America, Varese, who occupies a high place among the moderns, has narrowed the interest of his compositions to rhythm and the tone quality of the percussions. Rhythm is as esesntial a part of music as melody, but we have never made any attempt at developing rhythmic harmony or combing rhythmic metres.

1 do not think, says, an .hngnsh critic, that good music is written for the few and is essentially an aristocratic art. Many, nowadays, speak about the democratisation of art generally, and we are inundated with talks and lectures on musical appreciation, which only interest the already converted. Sir Walford Davies can hold forth to my housekeeper about the beauties of music until ho is blue in the face. Nothing doing. But her son loves these talks 'because he is naturally musical and enjoys being told what ho ought to like and why. But it is a moot point as to whether lie is really the happier for it. Does knowledge of an art bring appreciation? Not necessarily. It may bring intellectual appreciation, but tends (to my mind) to lower the faculty of emotional pleasure. The same tiling applies to all the arts. “What is little understood, in our opinion must be good/’ is the motto taken to heart by all the half-wits and soi-distant. intelligentsia of the world. For this reason I have always set my mind against learning the technique of painting, for fear my emotional reactions should lose their force and a cold I 1 intellcctualisni take their place. It seems generally to be assumed that grand opera in English is an admission that the singing is not of the usual standard. Perhaps the general assumption is right, but of the singing of Wil-

liaiu Heseltine and Alary Ogden in the two famous duets from “II Travatore” one can say at least that it is adequate, and there will be many who will prefer to sacrifice a little of the vocal beauty in order to get something of the sense of the song. The “Aliserere” duet, the most popular in all grand opera, is especially welcome, and it is very finely sung. Heseltine’s voice is good; not many of the tenors who consider themselves too good to sing opera in English could beat his expressiveness and sincerity. A husky young fellow in the early twenties came into the office this week. He was sunburned and his step lacked its usual springiness—in fact, he walked with apparent stiffness. “Been holi-day-making?” we asked. “No,” he grinned. “Been playing bowds. I’ll never call it an old man’s game any more. ” -

The ordinary gypsy band is composed of from two to ten players. The instruments used are strings and the cimbalom. This instrument, being practically unknown outside Hungary, nodes description. In appearance it is like a baby grand piano, without either keyboard or lid. The performer plays directly .upon the wires, using two tiny drumsticks for the purpose. The accuracy and speed with which the average player can manipulate these clumsy instruments are extraordinary. The notos ripple out in wonderful trills and cadenzas that would baffle an ordinary pianist, an dthe absence of pedal resonance gives tse music a peculiar ethereal quality similar to the tone of the harpsichord.