FAVOURITE INSTRUMENT

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12394, 13 March 1926, Page 14

FAVOURITE INSTRUMENT

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. "His favourite instrument -was the clavichord, on account of its power of expression;" writes C. F. A. Williams, in his biography of the great Johann Sebastian Bacn, "and he made his pupils chiefly practise on this.' He learned to tune it and the harpsichord so ’quickly that it never took, him more than a quarter of an hour. ’'And then/ says Forkel, r all twenty-four keys were at his service; he did with them all that he wished. He could connect the most distant keys as easily and naturally together as the nearest related, so that* the listener thought he had modulated through the next-related keys oi a single scale. Of harshness in modular tion he knew nothing; his chromatic changes were as soft and flowing as when he kept to the diatonic genus/ " (All this merely means that he tuned his clavichord -to the tempered scale, for which he wroto his Forty-eight Preludes and Fugues, and to which your own piano is ' tuned, instead of the "Meantone Scale" then in vogue.) Of his conscientiousness in' examining organs and organists, Forkel ironically remarks, it was such that he gained few friends thereby. But when he found that an organ-builder had really done good work, and was out of pocket by 'so doing, he would use his influence to obtain further payment for the man. "Though he would nave nothing to say of musidal mathematics, his knowledge of everything to do with the art and practioe of music was astounding. He wbb intimate with every detail of organ construction; he‘ not only tuned, but quilled, his own harpsichord, and . . . .invented new instruments. When he was shown newly-built opera house in Berlin,'’ he observed the construction (Of the dining-saloon, and said that if a person, whispered in a corner, another person standing in the corner diagonally opposite would hear every word, though no one else could do so.

WILLIAM BACKHAUS 'TO TOUR NEW ZEALAND.

William Backhaus, the eminent pian•ist, who is to make a recital tour of New Zealand and Australia this year under the direction of Mr E. J. Gravestock, has been playing with all his artistic colour in his recent appearances in London and New York, according to the Press notices* and at his New York concert on November 22nd introduced a transcription of Ignaz Friedman, also a distinguished pianist,'of Johann Strauss’s "Fruhlingsstimmen" Waltz. v * • • This transcription, dedicated to Backhaus, and played ,by him bn this occasion for the nrstr tune in public, is of the most formidable technical difficulties, but these, we read, vanished under the commanding power of the artist, whose equipment, is written of as marvellous, and his musical s ta£te as impeccable. While in England, Backhaus gave a uni* quo recital in Peterborough Cathedral. This programme was organised on behalf of the Peterborough Infirmary; the piano was placed just within the gates of the choir, and the audience crowded' the nave, many persons being obliged to stand. The recital, preceded by a short service, in which a choir of boys led the singing, included Beqthovon's "Appassbnata" Sonata, groups drawn from the works of Brahms and Schumann, and other pieoes. Of course, there was no applause—a novel- experience for BackhausJ

“RHYTHM AS PROPORTION” '

In an article on "Rhythm as Proportion" in "Music and Letters" (London), the late Mr Leonard Borwick speaks of the "proportion" that goes to "a fine plastic moulding and disposition of .phrase." "As I write the word this writer continues, "my mind goes back at least a generation to a conversation I once had with Joachim in the old-Bt. James's Hall Restaurant, where we . were lunching after a rehearsal for the afternoon 'Pop* (i.e., popular concert at the Queen's Hall, London). He had heard a certain performance overnight which Had impressed liiin very little favourably, and to my point-blank inquiry as to where exactly the shortcomings .lay, he' gave the most illuminating reply: "Not exactly anywhere, but everywhere. What was wanting all through was the plastic element. It was like hearing an uncouth mass of sound—if you can imagine such a thing/ "His wonderful command of English, reinforced as it was by a gesture of both hands outlining imaginary shapes, and. contours in the air, made the saying all the more noteworthy, and it has stayed with me ever since." It is a phrase that might well; stay with any musician, for a piece of imieio that is not interpreted rhythmically is* like some -giant structure such qs a cathedral, the walls of which are sagging, the roof misshapen ana the stefplo all awry. Mr Borwick headed his excellent article with a quotation from Shakespeare's Richard 11. that shonld aleo "stay with us":—• ' f Mußic do I hear? Ha! Ha! Keep time. How sour sweet some music is When time is broken and no proportion kept"

Mrs Steers •is now an accompanist to the students under the tuition of Signor Cesaroni. Mrs Steers has proved herself as popular, as well as an able, pianist. The Gramophone Company's factory in Sydney is the foreihost ana most up-to-date factory in the southern hemisphere, and they are to be Congratulated upon their enterprise in being able to afford the publio of New Zealand a chance of receiving all the very latest records both m popular hits and standard records, Allan Wilkie -has added "Measure for Measure" to his repertoire. -