ROTARY CLUB

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 15, 15 December 1937, Page 28

ROTARY CLUB

LADIES’ DAY. ADDRESSGN AIUSIC. The annual ladies’ day of the Palmerston North Rotary Ciub, which was held yesterday, was marked by an address on music by Aliss Mona Dean. The president (Air A. A. Langley) was in the chair. He announced that two Rotarians (Alessrs AA r . G. Black and C. Louisson) were making excellent recoveries from their illness.

“This is a great age for children with regard to music, for the approaches are so much more attractive,” stated Aliss Dean. “A backward glance at the \painful early musical struggles of many of the'Rotarians present will reveal that the majority of them never attained the peak. There are several delightful roads along which the children of to-day can he led to that glorious peak —music. The percussion band is perhaps one of the most suc- ■ cessful mediums. Percussion bands hold an important place in England, to-day. and the reason is that they arc educational rather than spectacular. A noticeable feature of the hand itself is the concentration which each child is called upon to make on its score. It must actually feel the music in order to follow it. Each instrument in the hand requires a mental and physical adjustment which is not easy for some children to adopt. AVith the conductor himself several factors enter. He must be an alert, vital person, possessing an excellent memory and a steady heat, . which defies the musical perambulations of his hand. From keeping a steady beat comes good control, which, in turn, gives confidence. To be a successful conductor a child must get right outside himself, and it is that which aids him to gain the confidence so essential to his life.”

Miss Dean said that the Rotarians were to see five different conductors at work that day.. Although a boy was not a good pianist or violinist it did not mean tto say that he had no musical ability. Conductorship was. in many cases, a medium for expression. “I have a number of students who, each week, bring me a poem, or some such composition, which they have set to music. Alany ot these are used by the percussion band.” The short programme then presented by the speaker’s' percussion band was as follows:—“Joyous Alarch,' an original composition: “Frolic,” an original song; “Chinese Coolie Dance ’; “Indian Temple Dance”; “Original Alarch”; “Gavotte Aloder-ne” ; Haydns “Minuet.” ■ ■ • A past president (Air 'J. Murray), in thanking Aliss Dean for her address, stated that, although it had been short, it had been lucid. ,It had been in the nature of a vocational talk. Air Murray considered that Miss Dean was doing pioneer work in Palmerston North, and he congratulated her on the entertaining band she had trained. He foresaw the time when percussion bands would be established in the kindergartens and the primary departments of the schools.