MODERN MUSIC.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 200, 14 July 1936, Page 6

MODERN MUSIC.

REFLECTION OF AGE. NOT ALLIED TO BEAUTY. AUCKLAND, July 13. Taking an analogy from the past, Professor Michael Head, professor of the pianoforte at the Royal Academy of Music, London, commented strikingly on the music of to-day. He arrived liy the Wanganella as official examiner in the Dominion for the Royal Schools of Music. Professor Head said that modern music reflected the restlessness which pervaded the world. Some of it—not all of it—was strident. It was harsh, there was hardness in it, it was aggressive, and it was far from being allied to beauty, which was the layman’s standard of good music. This was a reflection of present-day conditions. On Hie other hand, he said, there was something of this harshness in some of the works of Beethoven, while, strange as it might seem, contemporaries had been shocked at some of Mozart. Mozart, lie said, bad used what approached a discord to focus attention. That led him to compare modern music with the music of other days. While much of the music that was written to-day would be lost, and no one would miss it, some at least was likely to last. He mentioned Vaughan Williams and Sibelius, and particularly the symphonies of the latter composer. He did not think that “Finlandia,” expressed the true Sibelius. “Music,” he added, “is going through an experimental stage. After such giants of the romantic period as Brahms and ’Wagner, it was felt necessary to open out in a new direction. Thus there have been a 'great number of experimenters who have explored new fields of dissonance, rhythm and orchestral colour iu an effort to find new forms of expression.” Modem composers, he explained, had yet to learn that to follow in the steps of the great masters was to be merely copyists. They were not doing original work—hence the effort. “Rut, mind you,” he continued, “I think there is a swing back to an appreciation of melody and beauty.” While he is in tlie Dominion, Professor Head hopes to do concert work and to broadcast. He had had a busy time in Australia, bo said, not only in his work of examining, but also in the other directions he had mentioned. While in tlie Commonwealth he had given eight broadcast recitals m the various big cities. He is well known as a versatile musician and is a singer as well as a pianist and composer. He added that he had had 4U songs published.