WORLD OF MUSIC

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 26 August 1933, Page 2

WORLD OF MUSIC

“IN MEMORIAM” DAISY REILLY SCHOLARSHIP. It is safe to say that no one who over took a lead in musical activities in Hawera, did more for the cause of the art than the late Miss Daisy Reilly. She was an enthusiast, if ever there was one, and a strict idealist who considered her work as one of the very greatest things in life; she gave to it her utmost powers of concentration and the very best that was in her. In this respect her life was a great example to those who are taking up music, especially to the young people. Her influence, one feels sure, is still at work and still inspiring those who were her pupils and that tnose who are now teachers have adopted some at least of her zeal and enthusiasm. •Site came to Ilawera when there was not. nearly the following of music in the town and district there is now and she was able to widen the scope and to increase the interest in the art. Her annual concerts will he recalled with pleasure by many who tok part in solo, and concerted orchestral work.

The proposal to found a scholarship in her memory is worthy of strong support. It will keep in mind for all time the life of one whose whole heart and soul were in her work for music.

COMPETITIONS,

The festival of competitions is over and the 1933 event will be a memory of great interest to the many hundreds of people, old and young, who have been taking part or ‘been keen supporters. The festival was a great success in every way, the only disappointment being the choral work, one that should be strong in a place like Ilawera. FOUNDATION OF MUSIC.

It has been said that there are “two musical races in the world—the humans and the birds. The humans are the most musical—they sing all the vear round.”

But really one is inclined to doubt the truth of the statement after listening to he birds at this time of the ' year, in the early morning especially, but also in the evening, just at sundown. Their songs are equally melodious, equally musical, but they have a distinct and marked contrast. In the mornings they arc a song of praise; at even, a lullaby. This year, the spring is said to be very early—the Maoris forecast this some time ago and it is coming true. As a result the trees are putting forth their blossoms before the normal time and the plums as well as the tree lucerne are a mass of snow-w'hite flowers, looking wonderful with the dew of early morning glistening on them. For this reason, the birds have been attracted and there are birds to be seen which rarely have been in a town garden—a bell bird and a tui, with a host of finches, gaily coloured, of wise thrushes, which, as the poet says, “sing their songs twice over, for fear they should forget the first gay careless rapture.” And, of course, there is a myriad of hedge sparrows, and many blackbirds and minaTis, all contribut-j ing their part of the chorus. | Lovely as is the florid song of the , thrush, there is nothing to touch the clear, round liquid notes of the bellbird and the tui. They are two of nature’s solo songsers, to which the others form an accompaniment. Their ease and grace of song form a continual lesson to the human, striving for his life to get a top note. The pupil I would be fortunate indeed in getting such a model to emulate and to imi- j tate.

A well-known musical writer has said the birds have but melody, which they hand on to their young as they become able 'to sing. But really one sometimes is inclined to believe that

a wonderfol harmony, untaught, of course, and unrehearsed 1 , could be secured if the singing birds could be put together and the high and the deep notes contrasted. As one listens to the bird’s song in the morning, one cannot but feel that it is not exactly correct to say the bird has not rhythm. Listen to the tui, the bellbird and the thrush, with their measured notes and the pauses and the cadences. True it is that there is more music in their songs than some people ever know r or could learn. Form, too, is there, but it is a neutral, unrehearsed form.

This month is August, bird month, and one must confess to having been giving the birds a crumb of bread or two while the frost has been on the ground. And how they do appreciate it. Though there is plenty of lucerne bloom, they come down to the ground in dozens, every kind of bird that comes to the district. One likes -to think perhaps that they have sung the sweeter in return for a little kindness and consideration. In any case there ore few seeds coming up from the ground just now which they can destroy. Nature’s songs stop at these bird melodies. Man goes on to develop form, harmony—more or less, concords and discords, progressions, preludes and fugues, and all the many and varied forms of concerted music. He takes notice of qualities of tone, or colour, and uses the collection of strings which go to form a piano or the violin, the wood wind and the brass, and the pipes—“bag” and otherwise—to express these sounds and forms. He has his ducts, his trios, his quartettes, his quintets and his full choruses, vocal and instrumental; as he .progresses in the art, he makes longer and longer musical numbers. And so it goes on developing, each musician in turn taking it as far as his natural ability allows him. Bach master stamps it. with the stamp of his genius, just as lu ihe case in poetry or any other art. lie leaves behind him the produel of his min< 1 .ami brain. But ever ami anon one limls that two great minds have hit upon the same melody ‘or progression of chords. It is not plagiarism. There, are only a few notes and their variations are not. unlimited, though they are extraordinarily numerous. The wonder of it is that the same air is not written more often. Music really begins with the most simple natural sounds, the expression of a natural impulse. The principle is that of the poet who says of a child’s verses “1 lisped in numbers, for the numbers came.” The birds, like children, sing because they must. On this is built as a foundation the wonderful development which goes to make musical history. It is a subject and a study' that provide a fascinating page in the life

of the world. Music, throughout the ,agos, has exercised a profound influence on mankind and has been the foundation head and spring from which have flowed streams that have been balm to many a traveller in life’s journey, that have comforted many a sufferer, mentally or physically, and cheered men in\battle when all seemed lost and has enabled them to overcome suffering and weariness and in the end to conquer. The power of mit sic has often been stressed, but the more one studies the history of the world and of the lives of men and women, the more one realises its marvellous power and its enduring influence.