ART OF MUSIC

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24416, 30 September 1940, Page 3

ART OF MUSIC

"STUDENTS' CLUB*' INAUGURAL ADDRESS The president of the Music Teachers' Association (Mr G. W. Johnstone) addressed a large gathering of the newly formed Students' Club at Begg's Salon on Saturday night. He gave an interesting summary of the aims and objects of the club. "There is one thought that seems to stand out like Mars at Perhelion whenever thoughtful people mediate upon this world so full of sickening uncertertainty," Mr Johnstone said, "and it is this —that we are living at the end of an age, and that in the years that lie immediately ahead of us there will be enormous changes in values. There is abundant evidence that the thinking of the whole world is on a deplorably low level, and when that is the case in a democracy one does not have to seek one's troubles. This is summed up in " where there is no vision the people perish." But whatever happens, religion and art will continue; and it would appear that the wheel has turned full circle. No man can forecast with accuracy, but I shall be very much surprised if. in the years almost immediately ahead of us, both religion and art which have been necessary to man right down the ages do not turn back on their tracks unto a searching for simplicity. A Universal Language "We students of music ar,e indeed rortunate in that we speak a universal language," Mr Johnstone said. "I have little patience with those who look upon music as a religion, but I

do believe it to be the noblest and most expressive of the arts, and as such it has the power to reach the innermost depths of the human soul. I therefore feel it a privilege and honour to stand here at this inaugural meeting of young musicians, who are banding themselves together in the cause of music and to tell you that vou and all like-minded students throughout the Dominion are a great national asset, and the nation will be wise, if it listens to your message and encourages you to give more and yet more of your undoubted gifts. That you have responded in such large numbers to a circular message, without urging, is a significant fact which speaks of a clamant need. "We urge you to use every effort to give a spiritually sick world, beauty for ashes, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. You will meet in each other's homes and by so doing bring real music back to the place it never should have left. When you present your gifts you will often be tempted to say that there is a deep philosophy in the music hall song "He's dead, but he won't lie down," but don't be too sure, for your hearers may be lying doped, as Snowhite was, from eating a poisoned apple. You come to them as the Prince who with a kiss awakens them to life. Remember that emotion is always justified by time; thought, hardly ever, and that our music should be the expression of thought and feeling, and not. as it sometimes is, a series of noises made by way of the mouth or fingers.

Government as Mephistopheles

"It is a pity that any Government should act the part of a giant Mephistopheles degrading large numbers of young Fausts, and the vicious effect of much of the alleged music which is heard over the air can only accentuate a suggestion of anaemia or barbarity." Mr Johnstone said. "We know the difficulties, however, and we appreciate the work of the director even if we feel that he could do better still, if we did not sense a power behind him with a finger on the pulse of the great half-doped patient who signs cheques for close on half a million pounds annually. Mephistopheles is too wise to lose any portion of that But that is the short view. "Why will our political leaders continue to speak with two voices? Recently they made possible the greatest festival of music that we have enjoyed in our history; and yet they continue the total prohibition of the importation of musical instruments, and allow only 50 per cent, of the .1938 sheet music to enter. The Government assumes too much if it assumes that rich people are only poor people with money. Does Mr Nash not say in effect. ' I never read poetrv and have no time to listen to music, so let it go'? Any country that reasons in such a manner is—whatever its mechanical knowledge may be—well down the gadarene slope. Empty cupboards are bad, but empty minds in large numbers are a tragic menace in any land. They gnaw at the heart of a nation in that they accept and applaud the meretricious as meritorious. I am no pessimist, but believe with all my heart, in the beauty and power of thought and emotion in poetry and music to help towards a better world than we are now experiencing.

A High Standard

"The Students' Club will see to it that quality is placed before quantity," Mr Johnstone said. "Mere bigness is not beauty and you will realise that a world governed by mechanical speed and noise is neither essential nor desirable. Both are largely vulgar, while a more leisurely gait—quiet meditation and a peace that is not stagnation have always been the prerequisites of thoughtful cultivated minds. We will pass these thoughts and emotions on to our hearers in a humble and sincere attempt to express the beautiful in sound and so contribute to the best in life. Such is our aim."