MUSIC

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19239, 1 August 1924, Page 3

MUSIC

NOTES AND RECORDS. “The Dignity of Music” was the subject of an interesting address recently by Dr E. Earold Davies, Director of the Tvlder Conservatorium, Adelaide, at a luncheon in the Hotel Australia. “It seems to me,” said Dr Davies, ‘‘there is still a lurking tendency to regard the musician as more or less of a vagabond, his sole vocation being to ' tickle the oars of a thoughtless crowd with a strolling minstrel song or a fiddler’s tune, his solo reward whatever dole a heedless charity may bestow of ‘kicks or halfpence.’ Tradition dies hard. ‘Little Tommy Tucker, singing for his supper,’ is not yet an extinct, genus, and—as wo know too well—patronage has still humbly to be sought for.’’ “I admit another side,’’ continued Dr Davies. ‘‘There are stars in the musical firmament who receive disproportionate rewards; and there are social fashions which do not discriminate as to merit. But the rank and file of earnest musicians remain, fur the most part, a. struggling and poorly-paid Iratcrnity. There is only one explanation despite its almost universal appeal, despite the acknowledged genius of great composers, music is not yet regarded seriously by thinkers and scientists—dare I add politicians! I am aware of the philosophic interest of such men as Schopenhauer and Herbert Spencer, but these are exceptions to a ruling difference. Perhaps Darwin touched the point when he wrote these words; ‘As neither the enjoyment nor the capacity for producing music is a faculty of the least use to man in reference to his daily habits of iife, they must rank among the most mysterious with which he is endowed.’ There we have it. The prevailing criterion of value is utility and the measure of serious interest in our divine art must he determined by a purely material standard. Still we are in good company 1 Judged by the same standards, great poetry, great literature, great painting, nay, all those things that men do tor love, or in obedience to a lofty ideal, are of little apparent value; they do not minister to the needs of the body.” Dr Davies concluded by saying: ’it seems to us that in these days of toil and stress, amid the dust and in of what wo are pleased to call our modern civilisaition, there is greater need than ever for a recognition of the ‘humanities.' i would not for one moment disparage our enthusiasm for scientific research, or the advancement of technical skill, both of which truly aim at the betterment of existence. But we have been told that man shall not live by bread alone, and art, letters, philosophy, are equally deserving of our enthusiasm, and in ray humble —and, perhaps, perverted—judgment, the Art of Music above all.” A Sydney soprano. Miss Ethel Osborn, gives promise, it is reported, of brilliant achievements in the world of song. Last week Melba heard Miss Osborn at Government House, and is enthusiastic about her voice and her future, saying: “It is the most wonderful voice I have heard for years, and if she works hard there is a great future for her in grand opera.. I advise that she should begin her career as soon as possible, and will give the first £IOO towards a fund for sending her abroad, on condition that at least £I6OO is raised. Operatic study is all that Miss Osborn requires, and 12 months or so in Italy should suffice.” Meanwhile, Melba has secured Miss Osborn special coaching with Signor Chiavoni, one of the conductors of the Grand Opera Company. Charles Hackett has created a remarkable, sensation in Melbourne. The Argus, reviewing the third concert, said; “Any music-lovers who missed the concert given last night are to be deeply and most sincerely commiserated. A great deal of exceedingly beautiful music was magnificently rendered to the manifest delight of an audience so large that it not only filled the organ gallery (as well as the remainder of the hall), but also overflowed on to the platform itself.” A number of Berlin professional music critics were invited the other day to Breslau, to inspect a piano built by a leading firm of manufacturers, which represents the first attempt to construct an instrument capable of producing tones hitherto impossible to produce on the pianoforte. Eight shades of tone have been added to the octave, which is made to give 20 quarter-tones instead of 12 semi-tones. A great impetus to experiments such as this has been given by several young Continental composers, prominent among them being the Czech, Alois Haba. The experts report that the piano-makers are successful, but that the extremely complicated problem before them has been solved in just as complicated a fashion. Two grand pianos are used, one of which is strung up one quarter of a pitch higher than the other. An apparatus connecting the two has been constructed, and the performer sits at a keyboard covering the length of both instruments by means of fevers such as’ are used in pianolas. Upon this keyboard the ordinary chromatic scale has the usual black and white keys, and the other has the new quarter tones marked by brown keys. A most extraordinary new compass of sound nas been obtained this way, which, it is believed, is only the somewhat clumsy forerunner of a great now development in the realm of music. A social and educational institution that has caught on very well in the States and in the Old Country is the gramophone society. In England, especially, there are gramophone societies everywhere. Winter is the season of their activities. Many of these societies work in conjunction with the broadcasting companies, for it is recognised that wireless is one of the most useful means at hand of acquainting the general public with the vast possibilities of the gramophone. The appended extract from the London Spectator is very typical of the feeling existing to-day in musical circles with regard to wireless in its relationship to tho gramophone; “Judged by ordinary musical standards, broadcasting is a very poor substitute for its actual concert. It is a counterpart in music to a cheap reproduction of a painting, and like the reproduction it has the undeniable advantage of circtdating far and more widely than the original .... but although broadcasting offers a continual change of programme, it has not yet displaced its rival tho gramophone as the supremo medium of reproducing music. If wireless has shown amazing precocity in the lew years of its existence, the gramophone nas made a correspondingly rapid development. As yet tho gramophone is lar ahead, and it its many obvious advan-