NATION OF LISTENERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22320, 18 January 1936, Page 12 (Supplement)

NATION OF LISTENERS

AMERICAN PROFESSOR'S VIEWS HOW TO BECOME MUSICAL We need not underrate the countless benefits due to our marvellous modern machines from the telegraph to tho radio, but for a normal, vigorous condition of body, mind, or spirit, activity it; a fundamental law of life, writes .Mr. W. Sparling, professor of music at Harvard University, in a recent issue ot Etude. This holds also in the realm of the arts, especially in music—the most personal and vital ot all. At P l * 3B " cut, in comparison with the continental peoples, wo are a nation of music listeners. rather than music makers. No one should minimise the blessings we owe to the development and use ot tlio radio, it has brought music into millions of homes which, before its advent, were starved for any spiritual f.iod. Everything, however, has its uso and abuse. Far too many people think that by pouring a continual stream or music through their imagination —often into one ear and out of the other they are becoming more musical. By the grace of heaven, however, wo arc all music makers whether we realise it or not. That is, wo have a voice and the moans of listening to it, tho car; our heart is a kind of metronome—wo can make rhythm by clapping our hands—and we have imagination, emotions and even souls. Then why not sing? Ono hoars more people singing on tho streets and in their daily occupations in Italy, France, and Germany m a day than in years in our country. What other means aye available for the making of music? The marvellous instruments with which our modern world is so admirably equipped—tho violin, the organ, the flute, the clarinet, the saxophone, and supremely the pianoforto. Why? Because this instrument is the finest ever perfected by the imagination and skill of man, putting everything, melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamics and colour, under the control of a singlo performer. Tho violin is too difficult, except for those of special inborn talent; tho player has to do too much. He has himself to make all the tones, the intonations and the shading. It is fine to be able to play tho flute or the clarinet, but they have great limitations. The pianoforte is therefore indispensable for real musical cultivation. There has never been a lover of music who did not have a working knowledge of its advantages and who could not at least " play at it." A lady of eighty, who had played the piano all her life, was asked recently if she continued to keep up her piano playing. " Why, yes, indeed. 1 continue to eat, N do I not?" There is much food for thought in this answer. A genuine and lasting familiarity with music is to be gained only by active, personal participation—that is, the making of it ourselves or in union with others, even if it is merely picking out a tune on the pianoforte with one finger. When we can sing the themes of a piece, it is really ours—but not until then. It is better to know ono work well than to have five hundred poured through our ears, often cnlv once. To sum up, America is a great nation of listeners: we have some of the best orchestras in tho world and concerts, operas and music festivals galore; but how about music as an indispensable factor in our lives? With Continental families it is taken for granted that everyone can sing or play some instrument; true. Hence in the evenings, instead of going to tho movies, or whirling about the town at fifty or sixty miles per hour, or even attending theatres and concerts, the family assembles and makes its own music. What higher or more beneficial activity can there bo? I am convinced that from this soil, cultivated for generations, have sprung the manv famous composers of Europe as well as their great perfofmers.