BRITISH MUSIC

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21467, 15 April 1933, Page 8 (Supplement)

BRITISH MUSIC

LACK OF APPRECIATION IMPORTANCE OF ELGAR At tho Second International Festival of Music there wore concerts of French and Belgian, German, Italian, North American, South American, and Russian music. There wero to bo operas, symphony and chamber music performances, yet it had apparently not been thought worth while to include a single British work in tho list. It would ho unjust to blame in the matter a committee which contains names such as those of Casella, Tjabron, Malipiero, Molinari and Seraliin, none of whom can be accused of being biassed. The fault is not in these stars but in ourselves that we are underlings, writes Mr. L. Dunton Green in the London Daily Telegraph. What effort do wo make comparable to that of Germans, French, Italians, and others to make our music known abroad? How much is known outside Britain of Elgar, Bax, Bliss, Hoist, Vaughan Williams, to mention only these few, and who are tho composers of equal value that other nations can muster? he asks. it is not alone familiarity but also lack of acquaintance that breeds contempt. Can one wonder that Britain is ignored at a gathering whero duo notice is taken of Argentina or Brazil ? When tho air is thick with cries of " Come to Britain " and " Buy British " it is worse than a crime, it is a blunder, as Tallyrand once said, not to consider music as an exportable commodity. It is a blunder, too, to leave it to its own device, if only because (as one of the prominent officials said to me quite recently) " the English nature is inherently adverse to tho idea of propaganda." English apathy is largely responsible for the comparative ignorance of other nations regarding a man who is not only the greatest among English composers but who ranks among tlio greatest of his time —Sir Edward Elgar. Ho and Richard Strauss are the solo sirvivors of a. generation of giants such as Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler. It is high time that something should bo done for tho propagation of English music and musical expression abroad, and that the scattered efforts in this direction by a. handful of artists and professional men should be co-ordinated.