THE HEIGHT OF MUSICAL EXPRESSION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 28 October 1922, Page 5

THE HEIGHT OF MUSICAL EXPRESSION.

It was the final rehearsal of the "Messiah." The director was anxiously watching every note, every shade of expression. The chorus sang to the point where the soprano solo takes up 'the I^'frain, "I know that my Redeemer livetin.'' The soloist rendered her part perfectly— sc» it seemed to the chorus Her breathing, her notes, her enunciation, were beyond criticism. Surely the director would be pleased. But, alas, he was not. Silencing the orchestra, he walked up to the singer. "My daughter," he began in a sad tone of disappointment, "you do not know that your Redeemer lives, do you?'*

"Why. yes, master, I think I do," she answered, flushing slightly. "Then sing it. Tell it to me so that I shall know that you know. Sing it so that all who hear you will know that you know the joy and power of that great truth.''

Then he raised his baton for the orchestra to play again, and the singer repeated the refrain. But this time she sang out of her own deep Christian experience, and those who heard her wept. When she finished, the old master again approached her. His eyes were full of tears. "snuechter. yon do know, for you have told me."

There is no doubt that all the e:re«test singers—and it may be added

actors as well —have reached the height of their powers and gained the highest plane of artistic expression because it has been theirs to live the part they sing or act. The great artists study the life, the words, the character of the one whom they are impersonating. Their success is measured by their abiL i*& to do this to the full.