CHAMPION CORNETIST

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 74, 24 February 1938, Page 7

CHAMPION CORNETIST

A POPULAR SUCCESS. BRILLIANT BLIND MUSICIAN. One of the most popular successes in solo competitions at the Dominion brass band contest was that of Mr Allan Morton in the New Zealand B flat cornet championship yesterday. Mr Morton is a member of the Jubilee Blind Institute Band, and has never seen a printed note of music. “I do not play by ear,” he said after his success; “I play from memory.” Very modest about his achievement, but naturally proud that he had annexed the Gordon Bergersen gold medal, he emphasised to a “Standard” reporter who approached him that he would not stand for any '“synipatliy-for-the-blind” attitude. “I don’t like that sort of thing,” he said. He was willing, however, to describe how lie learns music. He does not read music —he feels it, his music, like that of other blind musicians, being transcribed into Braille. Thus he had to memorise it. “Sometimes,” he said, “it takes me from 10 days to two weeks to memorise a piece. It is merely a matter of training the mind. I have never been able to read music by actual sight, so I was trained from the very start to memorise and therefore do not find it difficult.” That he must have a wonderful memory was exemplified in the cornet solo competition yesterday, when he played the difficult' contest piece lasting about 10 minutes and scored the highest number of points (92) which the judge (Mr E. P. Kerry) has ever given in a solo event in New Zealand. In the A grade first test selection last evening Mr Morton played with the Auckland Regimental Band, taking a loading cornet part, and again his remarkable memory and understanding were very much in evidence to those who knew he was participating. Mr Morton has just passed his eighteenth birthday, and has been playing the cornet for about seven years. He is also a member of the Blind Institute’s dance band and is a keen pianist. His tutor, Lieutenant G. YY 7 . Bowes, is conductor of the Blind Institute’s band and is also conductor of the First Battalion Auckland Regiment Baud, which is taking part in the contest. He is well pleased with Mr Morton’s success.

“Allan Morton has exceptional qualities of musicianship,” Lieutenant Bowes said, “anu given the opportunity I would expect him to develop into a first-class champion. He showed remarkable aptitude from the very start.”

Winning yesterday entirely on his merits—tlie judge neither knew Allan Morton’s age nor the fact that lie is blind—the young cornetist was given a great ovation when the result was announced, witli the second competitor eight points away and the third a further six behind.

Tills is the second occasion on which he lias annexed the title, having won at the contest two years ago when he was 16 years of age.