MUSIC

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 283, 14 November 1929, Page 10

MUSIC

IN EVERYDAY LIFE HOW TO APPRECIATE IT. In Christchurch Dr. Markham Lee, gave an address on “Music in Everyday Life” to music lovers, in which he said: “Music is the art most constantly with us. Probably the majority of us pay little heed to architecture. We may avoid painting and sculpture for the reason that we never enter a gallery, but music is unavoidable. It forces itself upon us day after day. I have heard gramophones in shop doors, particularly in such ‘benighted places as Auckland and Wellington,' where they dominate even the noise of the traffic! We have little control oyer public music, but in the private circle—in the home—we have more authority,” said Dr. Lee. “To-day things are very different from what they were twenty years ago. To-day we have to fight against the competition of the gramophone and the radio. The present tends to be a jazz-mad age. You must not think I despise jazz. It is often very clever, and it inspires the sense of rhythm. But it must not be looked upon as the whole soul of music.”

With the wireless, said Dr. Lee, the listener was not allowed his own choice, as in the case of the gramophone. Both might be factors either for good or ill. Untold harm could be done to the art by people who turned ou the loud speaker on all occasions. Some ate through the radio music, talked through it, laughed through it, and paid no attention to it. That was the whole trouble. They lost the art of paying attention. Taste in music could be defined as a preference for the noble forms.. Poor music would satiate, but good. light music led to an improvement in taste. The aim was always towards beauty, although the attempts might sometimes be far from beautiful. There was no dearth of piano-playing in New Zealand, especially with the valuable group teaching schemes. “I would like to see more pianists giving attention to the art of accompanying and not concentrating on solo woik alone, ' saiu Dr. Lee. The tnree great elements m music were melody, harmony, and thythm. Melody consisted simply of a succession of sounds, and any succession of sounds formed a melody.

After playing an example of modern music, tne speaker forecasted that that particular type would probably be as commonplace in a hundred years as were the works of Beethoven and Rachmaninoff to-day. “If you play a saxophone, a banjo, or a ukulele, for goodness sake sing,” said the Doctor. “Sing in your bath, in your office—if they'll let you—but whatever you do, sing. Perform rather than be ministered to and thus learn musical appreciation, for the aids to appreciation were never so numerous as they are to-day. Many people are content to bask and bathe in -music without comprehension. Most of us have powers of imagination, and we should use them to the full. There may be tears in the quest but we are on a happy road on the whole. In the words of Sydney Smith: ‘Music is the only cheap and unpunished rapture on earth.’ ”