Recorded Music: Notes and Reviews

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12199, 25 July 1925, Page 14

Recorded Music: Notes and Reviews

• It is probably because of the unusually elaborate setting used for the second act of "Ruddigore” that this delightful member of the “Gilbert and Sullivan" series of comio operas has not been so widely performed as most of the others. The first revival after a lapse of many years took place at the Prince’s Theatre, London, during the season 1921-22, and it is now a popular item of the D’Cyly Carte, repertoire.

The plot is highly original and deals with the curse laid on the Baronets of Ruddigore, by a witch who was burnt by Sir Rupert (the first baronet) who held the title in the reign of James I. Under tho curse, each baronet is compelled tp commit one crime a day, the penalty for refusing to do so being death by torture. When the opera commences, Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, in order to escape tho curse, has disappeared for ten years, and lives as a farmer in a neighbouring village under the assumed name of Robin Oakapple.

His youngest brother. Sir Despafd, presuming him to be dead, has succeeded to the title, and is obliged to carry on the terms of the curse Robin’s secret is betrayed and he is compelled to assume his rightful rank and become a "Bad Baronet of Ruddigore." His sweetheart, Rose Maybud* the village beauty, forsakes him, and he is haunted by the ghosts of his ancestors fpr foiling to commit his daily crime, as they do not consider that such offorts as making a false income tax return or forging one’s own will rank as "crimes.” Robin finds a wav that is truly Gilbertian to extricate himself from his pre-, dicament, and the opera ends happily. • .• • . •

Now the "His Master's Voice" Company has issued records of the complete musical. section. These were made under the personal'; supervision of Mr Rupert D'Oyly’ Carte, so that all traditional features have been carefully preserved. The* album presented with eaob complete .'set of records also contains’ a full synopsis, of the opera, and a "key" reference to the‘records.

' • 1 ’ * ' * It is a worthy attempt, (or though some of the i choruses, particularly those for women’s' voices, still elude the recorder’s skill; there is .much .hero that is satisfying:: "Ruddigpre” is U remarkable opera,,'.remarkable in its musical variety. There’ is a madrigal (“When Buds are Blossoming"), ghost music (‘'When the Night' Winds Howls," is tho best of it),‘songs of the;sea and of sailor .iife, a sailor’s hornpipe, better, to this ear, thank the . 'generally accepted one, a burlesque mad scene ("Cheorily Carols the Lark"), with'all the trimming which Donizetti would have given it, marriage music and two of '.the . most. charming ballads that Sullivan ever wrote. These last are "There grew a little Flower” and "To a garden fined with Roses." ' / • • • ■.*’ ■# '

The singers here are all of ability. George Baker, of "Beggar’s Opera" fame,' Derek Oldham, Edward Hulland, and Darrell Fancourt are among them. Fancourt’s. singing of the spectre song "When the Night Wind Howls,” is a fine piece ;of work, and his ringing, tone makes the record an excellent oiie. George Baker needs no praise, his conscientious and intelligent work is well-known, and Edivard .Holland (Adam Goodheart) owns a thoroughly good bass voice. The women a<re not on the same level, though Eileen Sharp stands out in the mad scene, and its following ballad, Bertha Lewus is the. best of them and sings well. The gramophone does not altogether take to the machine, or it is unkind to her. The same thing may be said of Derek Oldham in that beautiful ' burlesque and ’splendid melody; "Wo sailed, d'ye see, in a Revenue' Sloop." \ ' ! •

•.* • • But .the whole set, which covers nine 12-mch records, is Well worth while. Many of thesq melodies are shamefully little, known and no self-respecting lover of the immortal G. and S. can afford to remain ignorant of them. They will haTe little chance of hearing ‘"Rnddigoro” ota the stage. • • . • • . • . ’’According to , 'the' F Ltindon' ! "Sunday Times," one: record-manufacturing eoniPany sold'iO.Tpo were issued.) bf 'Be' i Happy, K from "No, No, Nanette,'’’n'KLlS astonishing what; fl/aucotae! 'thßSeJtecorda have. The same 'auWpritfc dtPesVtl&t tf'durinfl fftW.KVwMA 1 ;! .(Wrjf+Ap l ')*eftTply in ! Apnl)'»eaxl^ft ( .of,',Bong and dani» "Katja the Dancer," ''Np/'NNinette," and.c"Rose Mane,” pull’be.’fimnnfaatured. .Colunibia has. alrtajiy, tetoished', New Zealand-with S&t*' 0 f ex^Bedjugbf;)rpbpular records, aufi. that'iipi 'Vo’oafe'u#runl«ntal, and dance salesmens.■ The.- "No',. No, Nanette” palafitioae'bj the Ffilaoe 'Theatre Oflchefitra:' condtiOted by Percivftl, MacKey. a go 6& lntrodncqon to this bright innsi&u 'plfty> apd it includes the danch melodies. • * * * * '‘Cherry Ripe” and “Arva” ("Valse Mignonne”) ■ are trifles not beneath the dignity of Albert, Sammons to record as violin solos for. Columbia. They are welcome additions to the collections, of records, made by those who do not care for socalled '“heavy music,” and they are , played by a master. s ■ i * !■' *' : * . " As often happens, what began as a joke turned to a eeriqus subjoct of discussion When Australia’s national instrument of music was 1 discussed at a gathering of musical people, in Sydney, Alfred Hill said that / the mouth-organ was the national instrument of Australia, par excellence. Everybody laughed 'at the time, but the New Zealand composer meant what he said, and showed why he considered the harmonioa—to call it by its more respectable name—to hold a place of honour in the. Commonwealth as the pipes in Scotland and Ireland and the harp in Wales. The time has not yet con4c for the teaching of the mouth-or-gan at the Sydney Conservatorium, but Auckland 1 wasf the place selected for the Mouth-OTgan Championship, and it is not likely to be the-last held in New Zealand. The mouth-organ records remarkably well for the gramophone, as anyone listening to W. Y. Robinson’S performances of his own compositions for that, instrument; '".The Regiment Basses By” and "Dnrkio Dances," will vouch for. Aspirants, for distinction as harmonica toldists in coming. contests will find in these 'Basal records much to interest and help them. r >" ; > ■’*- ■ ■ a pile of the most notable records of claaisical njusio released- this ya'ftr is the Bach Concerto’ in ~)p >minor ( for/ Klavief and BtringS;;' ; pexf6suxed;/ ! by an'; orchestra con? ducted ..by Sirt Henry .Wood, and the pianoforte "X>fufct 'with exceptional brilliancy;:;'lßFitx'f'iet'' Cohen, better known aß' Sn'ifiterpteter of modern music, and r ayquitd y^ung..performer in the concert ofijunbers-’of'.London. Bach,is seen in his most attractive’,character as a composer in this lovoly , He can be very solemn, not 'to say austere, at times; not .sc in-tUis'concerto. ’lt must have, been very;«ttfl|oUlt fpr ~Miss Coben to have preteryed’i.fn Jbet .playing the idea of the unassertive tone of the klavier 'dr AhaTflsiqhoi'd; but she has done so with; ‘conspicuous success. She has made quite indispensable to the whole, and entered whole? heartedly into the braght. spirit of the work. The orchestra) work, ’Sir Henry Wood being responsible, is excellent. : '• v >

The Library of Congress in Washington is to have a -collection of gramophone records by various celebrities. The Victor Company will install this collection, which will include a large proportion of the records made by worldfamous artists during the past twentyfive years. The collection of Victor records is now being assembled, and will probably be given a special room in the great library, together with an electrically operated Victrola. With the record collection there will be a cross-referenced file relating to the Government’s already large collection of music, musio history and criticism. Recently the sum of 50,000 dollars was given to the library of Congress for the endowment of cliamber■musio concerts, and with the addition of the record collection, it is expected, that the music division of the Horary will be expanded from a ■ simple repository of books and musical manuscripts into an immensely, larger field, giving the opportunity to students of music to hear the works of the great composers done by master artists, instead of merely tracing them mentally from books and notes. ■The record library will contain a large number of records made by artists now dead, and it will be the first seriously conceived public collection of such records in America. Some of these records, it will be reihembered, are most carefully guarded in Europe. At the Paris "Opera," for example, are vaults, hermetically sealed, which contain records not to be touched for fifty ori a hundred years, and then only for comparison with those made by artists still tc come. The congress collection will, of course, be augmented as new records are made, (hereby transferring into permanent form such of the music of the times as seems desirable to perpetuatg. Of the Victor record collection. Librarian Herbert Putnam says, "The records will add greatly to the resources of our mjsio division and auditorium in giving pleasure and . instruction to a highly significant public." Mr Carl Ungel, chief of the music division, adds, ”‘I have been moved especially by the thought of the coming generations. To them this extension of the resources of the music division—adding to the printed,record of a composition the record of its sound in performance —will be invaluable With my pleasure and satisfaction there mingles only the regret that this wonderful invention was not made three hundred years ago." / It is interesting to know that besides records by Adelina Patti ,and the great tenor Tamagno, the library especially requested “When Buddha Smiles," a foxtrot by Paul Whiteman.

It; is a mistake to believe that Julia Ward Howe wrote the only "serious” words to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic,” otherwise "John Brown’s Body," which Louise Homer is singing this month. Henry Howard Brownell, a wellknown Civil War poet aind a friend of Oliver Wendell Holmes, tried a hand at it but failed, while Edna Bean Proctor produced .a smooth lyric setting, which also, nevertheless, failed of its purpose. The melody of the song, or hymn, has. never yet been satisfactorily traced to its source, though claims are strong for William Stefie, a Philadelphia composer who in 1856 is said to have furnished music for some-very undignified lines to be sung by a voludteer fire company in Charleston, 8 C. It is held, too, that a very similar tune was used by the "Millerite” congregations as early as, 1843. During the Civil War, the now familiar melody was known among Southern negroes as the "Wedding Tune," and the story also' is told if that girls, on hearing it, re; fused to dance to it, they believed they never would be married «* * * *

Pew people except nlusicians know that "time,’’ in music, is as much a- matter of duration as one of ascent. Almost any one but a mental defective can learn to “beat time,” that is, to attack a note at the same moment as others; but-to hold it to its exact length, especially in slow music,, requires real time-sense, which is nearly as rare among musicians perhaps, as among the laity.

Jean de Reszke, by many considered the greatest tenor of all time, and surely among the first rank of operatic tenors in the history of music,'began his career as a baritone. He simply decided that he would sing tenor and trained his voice accordingly Other tenor x voices excelled his. but few singers excelled him in knowledge of how to produce the best possible tones in his voice, or how do feel and live the role he interpreted.

Dal Monte’s recent recordings have fiaisod the. old question of the “highest note possible to the human voioe." There is ho "highest possible note," for "freak" voice? have been discovered, which run far above the compass of ' the highest musio written for the vojee by * great composers. Possibly the highest note used in modern times in music of “fegiti-. mate” interest, was Mozart’s famous high . F in the "Magic Flute," which really corresponded to about the modern E; the pitep of those days being lower than that of the present one. Dal Monte, in her rocent recordings, has reached a D with the greatest ease, about one full tone higher than Patti’s usual limit, though it has been historically claimed Patti could sing higher but feared to itsndanger her voice.

Chinese records and a Chinese index are the latest tribute of the mixed nationalities of the United States. The Viotor Company has issued a series of discs to appeal to the 65,600 Orientals who dwell there.

The selections on these reoords represent the music and the artists of new China. Some of the songs are now being performed on the Pacifio Coast by a visiting Chinese opera troupe. Among the male artists represented are Sham Kwai Ling, Liang Wing, Loung Sang Wah, Chin, Lai Cheung, Tsi How Chut, Pea Tin Ting, Siu Sang Tate, Wai Chuno Kwok and Chan Shing Wai. The female artists include Li Shui Pee, Tsang Sul Ting and Mai Tarm So. ' As in tho case qf nearly all Chinese records, the songs are often given in a 7 series of from four to eight >,parts, each part being marked numerically in; the supplement and on the. label. > • ,

*'* V * • i How old is Galli-Curci P Thirty-three years ago .in Milan, . Amelita Galli-Curci was born ,of Spanish-I'talian parentage. The piano claimed Amelita’s attention long before she knew that she coiild sing, and , she profited by an association with, the musical and literary celebrities of L the day, ’ among them the great composer’Mascagni. He had known her as a . child; she was only four years old 'he predicted for hen-a future as a pianist. A' frequent .visitor at the home of; her i parents he chanced, one day, to hear her singing. At that time, when the great artists of the ago were appearing in his own operas, .he suggested—"Ajnelita, mv. girl, you 4nive a Wonderful voice. Teach yourself: to sing," At sixteen' she won first .prize' for pianoforte at the Milan Conservatory.' and for some time she had to employ her talents to help her family through a period of Severe;financial difficulty.'