QUEER MUSICAL CRITICISMS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 52, 11 February 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

QUEER MUSICAL CRITICISMS

When the amateur provincial journalist takes in band the reporting of ac*n"ert. he anpfars to be divided between the desire to say something eanart and original and to be at the same time complimentary to the local performers, with the result that bis criticisms are frequently very ludicrous. Even the evidently intentional words of praise ran hardly be thought very highly of by their recipients. It would not be easy to excel the remarkable observation of that critic who said that “Miss M sang the piece with the requisite embonpoint! ’ No doubt he had not the slightest intention of alluding to the plumpness of the artiste or the reverse, but, fumbling in his beclouded brain for some suitable phrase, he lighted on this expression and lugged it in by th® ears, ignorant of its meaning. Not far behind him was that other who. in reporting a certain provincial concert, remarked that “Mr. sang extremely well, his beautiful voice breaking out sometimes like the sun from behind a cloud,” and further, that on the same occasion “Mrs. sang with her usual taking effect; the living and sinking of th® voice was most attractive.” Not content with having perpetrated there feats, h® proceeded to inform readers that “Mr. was in good form, his deeu voice pervading the whole room, and sometimes sounding as of a deep subtertanean rumbl'ng.”

The ways of American newspaper men are so different from ours that, as may be supposed, their musical criticism is not laid down on the good old sober lines in use with us. The American critic, whether he knows anything about music or not, is never at fault for something to say—the more original, nta’-tling. and peculiarlyI'hrased the totter. A choice specimen »« this, regarding a female voc -lit: “Her mu ic is not shut up in tor la-ynx; it circulates > to her toes She doesn’t sing so much t with her mouth a« with her whole organisation Her litt'e. finelv-model-led bend is cocked on like a bobolink’s, and looks, at the first glance, very mmh as a cadenza rounds The very set of it is ad lib., and it nreps over the top of conventional!’tv with a saucy promise ” This is. however, mere trifling banter a* compared with the more «e~ious vein of the writer respowmh’e for the following criticism of th- "rent m'anist . Pachmsnn • “At him critics -htorn.ttolv i Mnile and frown: concer'-in" him amn- i tours rejoice and i'lne-t R-t h« is | rn : qne A e'-o t :«tio «hou<- I I der-shrng"inc '-robri* ‘hr u •*- whom. |in some mvsteri ->t- •-a-'-o- •’'t« s i pure essenc* of Ctomin’« r> o*-y '’->’lin-r ' upon the listener’s «torm- 1 I breeding tones of rich « n r ‘tv. or ■ j tinkling in tvnr'v. gl d'v drnrs; ' tnt’chsw that bhit of inn'-re- mconilrghts. when blue-gr-en shadows are scented with the *i -ht« of dymg lib s. and th* r>ain of I’vtn.g i< Itohtonod by i the warm fragrance of the opening ! roses."