MUSIC.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19903, 24 September 1926, Page 5

MUSIC.

NOTES AND RECORDS, NOTATION. The ‘'expert'' who, by twelve easy postal lOaaOns, g in-ixateea a person, v.iui no piovious kuooleuge oi piaxiororte p.ayio 6 , to uengiit ms or uor menus with a perioriuuuce ot I'ouoiusivi a "ruiapsouy i.i biia l music'' oiteu mys stress on tne met mut tne “old troublesome notation ' is discarded oy Ins system, attempts nave oeeu made Iroin time to time to improve tne present system ot writing music, the latest being in aoraojTs uowly-puonsueu organ sympnouy. Uiten the top stave is to oe pmyeu an octase mgnet tnan written, this being indicated oy tne Roman numeral one. xms saves leger lines out presents u confusing effect to the eye, and it is dououul il the innovation will bo of practical value. Accidentals have no value except lor the nctes in trout ot which they stand, with the exception of tied notes and ugures ot a repetitive nature. Convenient as this sounds, in practice tne player is constantly in douot. We are apt to overlook that notation, or

the representation ot musical sounds m writing which compares a composer a thoughts to the world, is the outcome of centuries of experiments and gradual improvements. As tar as we know at present the Greeks were the only ancient European nation that invented a means ot writing down the various sounds of voices and musical instruments. They used the letters of the alphabet tor this purpose, as did the Hindoos before them, and the Western Europeans alter them. xlie Persians used numbers and a kind of stave of nine lines, while the Chinese used special signs tor their pentatonic scale. Tne first use of Latin letters is found in the writings of Eothius, about a.d. 600, though these were never used to indicate melodies. Alter this time a system ot signs called neumes arose, and, contemporary with this, the Latin letters began to be used to represent the degrees of the scale, though not in any uniform manner, in the eleventh century Uuido d’Arezzo systematised this by ms invention ot "Soimisation,’’ using, wjith one exception, the present ionic Sol-la names tor the notes ot the scale. tic was a sarcastic monk and prelaced his ".Rules lor unknown song’’ with the remark, "Of all living men singers are the most fatuous.” It he did not also invent the stave, there is no doubt that he greatly improved it and confirmed its use. L)itferont coloured lines were in use at this period. in the early days there seems to have been no means ot indicating the relativ . length of notes, and this was not necessary witu purely meiodio music. With the advent of part singing sonie means nad to be devised to keep the voices logotha. About the middle of the twelfth cent >ry Franco of Cologne wrote “Cantus tne surabilis,” the first work of mark dealing with this subject. He adopted four stxndards of length—maxura (or duplex longa), longa, brevis, and semibrevis. Then relations to one another varied in accordance with a time-signature, which showed whether each long note was to be equal to two or three shorter ones. _ From these rudimentary beginnings notation as we know it, evolved by a lengthy and somewhat painful process. Innumerable efforts have been made to supersede the accepted system by others, _ supposedly easier to learn or more simple in construction. These have usually the fatal defect of making too great a demand on the intelligence of the performer, to the detriment of the aesthetic side of the music.

Many of the immortal Gilbert and Sullivan operas are recorded in tbeir entirety, and a pleasant evening can be spent with them, especially if a copy of the libretto be procured and read by members of the party. The operas available are “lolanthe,” “Pirates of Penzance. “Patience,’’ “Pinafore.” “Yeoman of the Guard,” “Mikado/ Ruddigore," and “Princess Ida." The Lener String Quartet’s interpretations of Haydn’s compositions are always worth hearing. It was not long back that they issued the records of the very fine Quartet Op. 76. No. 5, which revealed new beauties in the old composer s music. This was followed by Quartet 2 from the same set, and now this combination is responsible for a six part effort that is in every sense on the same high plane. This is Havdn’s Quartet in D Major, in which his general - style, sense of numourj and line of contrast are all fully exploited , It is simple to tell if the needle-track alignment of a machine is correct or not. Turn your sound box round so that the needle points to an agle of 20 or halfpast 7 (or whatever the angle may be at which you intend using the needle). Then see if the needle is. exactly in line—from back to front—with that part of the record groove it touches. Try not one position of the record only, but all parts °f it. , , Moiseivitch is one of the best recording pianists of the day, and . i records arc consistently good. The following list of numbers played by this world-famous executant may be of interest: —Arabesque in A Flat (Leschetizky); (b) Finlandish Dance (Palmgren); Barcarolle (Rubinstein) ; Berceuse . (Chopin): Chant Polonais (Chopin-Liszt); Clair de Lunc (Debussy); Coucou, Le (The Cuckoo), “Piece de Clavecin” —Daquin; Frushlingsnacht (Spring Night), Op. 33, No. 12 (Schumann-Liszt); Hark! Hark! The Lark—Serenade (Schubert-Liszt); Impromptu, Qp. 36 (Chopin); Jardins scous la Pluie, Rain in the Gardens i Debussyj ; Mazurka, No. 51 (Chopin); Minstrels, No. 12, from the First Book of Preludes (Debussy) ; Nocturne in E Minor (Chopin); Perpetuum Mobile (Weber): Prelude, Op. 28, No. 20 (Chopin); (b) Valse, On. 64 (Chopin); Traumeswirren, Dream Visions, Op. 12, No. 7 (Schumann): Valse, Op. 64 (Chopin); (a) Prelude, Op. 28, No. 20 (Chopin); Waltz in G Flat Major (Chopin). For a symphony to be recorded before it is publicly performed is something of a novelty, but this is what happened to the “Solway” Symphony of J. B. M‘Ewen. The “Solway” is a splendidly vigorous work from its opening movement, “Spring Tide,” through the second, “Moonlight,” and on to a finely worked up close, “The Sou’ West Wind.” The composer has shown much imaginative force in this symphony, and all who care for modern music should hear it to learn just how impressive the modern idiom can be when handled by a man who matters. Bach brings us at once to the appreciation of old music. It is the composer’s time and view that we have to consider, [f we can get this latter point Bach will appear not merely as a great contrapuntalist. but as a full-blooded human. It mav even dawn on us that the early eighteenth century was perhaps not the beginning. but the fading, of a great era. Byrd and Gibbons in England had been dead si?cty years before Bflch wss born. B&ch s “Brandenburg Concerto in G, for Strings,’ is certainly a great work. The. English orchestral string players are proving firstrate soloists. . Mozart’s “String Quartet (No. 21) m D,” was written for the King of Prussia, June. 1789. It was written to suit the ’King’s tastes; it contains unusual contrapuntal elaboration and gives unusual importance to the higher . registers to the ’cello. The second and third movements have been played by the Flonzaley Quartet, whose renderings are very clear and vigorous. Feodor Chaliapin, whose visit to New Zealand unfortunately did not extend to the South Island, is a bass of exceptional gifts. His beautiful and flexible voice—wonderful in its enormous povjer and quality of tone—his rare artistic feeling and thoughtful study, his independent interpretation, and his astonishing.dramatic powers combined with superb diction, nave enabled him to create in the region of Russian music a scries of outstanding and original V>peratic figures, amongst which Boris Godounov.” “Ivan the Terrible “Ihe Miller,” “Mephistophelee,” and The Demon” are particularly notable. The old time records soon wore out, no matter what amount of caro one exercised. The modern product is differently fashioned, and with care should last for years. That care must include the avoidance of finger marking. Never get your finger prints on to the playing surface. This readily absorbs the grease and acids being constantly exuded from the fingers, and if records are put away uneleaned, i f so marked, a patchy roughening of the surface will soon become apparent.

Two entrancing intermezzos from Wolf; Ferrari's opera “Jewels of the Madonna, are beautifully played by the 8.8. C. Wireless Symphony Orchestra, under Mr Percy Piit. Another good bracket by these players is “Minuet” (Boccherini), and “Lcs Millions D'Arlequin” (Drigo). The Minuet formed the subject of one of the dances performed by Pavlova in her recent appearances. The following group of songs by George Baker is worth having;—“ Myself When Young” (from Lehmann’s “Persian Garden ”). the “ Toreador Song,” “ Dio Posnento'.” " Faust.’’ the Pagliacci Prologue, and “ Largo al Factotum.”