MUSICIANS AND COMPOSERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2735, 15 August 1906, Page 72

MUSICIANS AND COMPOSERS.

BENEVOLENCE OF. MUSICIANS. (London Daily Telegraph, June 29.)

The Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain, instituted as long ago. as 1738, held its annual festival dinner at the Gaiety Restaurant last night." Starting from the benevolent efforts of some worthy members of the profession to alleviate the distress of th.-> children of a brothei artist whom they recognised by accident in the streets of London, the society, thanks to thp energy and of the founders, vac «oon put on a sound basis. Many celebvatcd composers were enrolled within its ranks, among them being Handel, who continued throughout his life to watch over tha interests of the institution, showing his/ appreciation of the good it effected by bequeathing £1000 to its funds. In 1790 tb« fcocioty w*s grantee!" a Royal Charter by George 111, and from that' time. to the present <»ach year has been marked by a constant accession to its funds, the greatest gsnerceitv having been displayed by those interested in the encouragement of the art of music and in the welfare of its .professor 1 -. The governors' and court of assistants acknowledge with deep expressions of gratitude the liberal patronage received from ihc late Queen Victoria, King Edward V 7 II (whu presided at tbe festival in 1874}. the Queen, tho Dtike of Connaught, and other members of the Royal Family, as well as the kind and generous sympathy which in ycarjs past induced the late Duke of Cambridge and other distinbuished individuals to preside at the annual festivals. During the last season over 454000 was expended in providing for the maintenance of the widows and orphans, and in" solacing u\e rlecvinii'fr years of poor member* who, in old a:re, having worked ihard, oftentimes ill-paid, had been precluded and disabled from continuing the exercise of their profession It may also be said that relief js often afforded to many deserving person f\ who have no ciaim whatever on the society's funds.

Th© Duke of Marlborough presided last night. In proposing the toast of the evening, he confessff that be could not lay claim to any great knowledge of or ear for mu«ic, but, all the s&nte, music was to him a kind of inarticulate speech which brought one almost to tho borderland of the infinite, from which they were allowed psctiy to comprehend the undefined regions which lay beyond.— ("Hear, bear.") He thought it was Napoleon who "iaid that among «bearts music was the roost valuable, because it helped to control the passions of a country, aird that , emwequenily those in authority should do all in tbeir power to -have it cultivated and recognised by the State.— (HH e a. r , hear.") It would be improper for. Tim in any way to -draw attention to the somewhat divengced position between the State and those cwmected with tbe musical world in this country. Perhaps at some future date the St»te would be »ble to recognise music in a more practical form— ('Sßear, heaT"),— -but until it did so they must rely ripen those great voluntary efforts made, and made in a most admirable way, which year by year enabled a greater number of the people of this country to get access to many. -musical •performances throughout the. length and breadth of the country. Life without music would be like spring without flowers, and they therefore owed a -great debt of gratitude to musicians in respect of those wonderful compositions, executed with euch «kill, wh>ch they were able to listen to in this j;reat metropolis and the other great centres of population.— ('\Hear, bear.") In conclusion, h> Grace, amidst cheers, expressed his willingness to- place his London residence at the disposal of tbe aociefcy any time during the next six or eight months for a concert in aid of tbe fuads.

! Supporting the chairman were Dr W. H. | Cuounings, Sir Charles Stamford, Mr Henry Clayton, tbe -Rev. Dr Shegpwd, - Mr Albert Raiideggar, and Mr Edward German. Songs etc., were contributed by i Miss Maria Ye Hand, Mr Ban tock Pieri pont, Miss Marjorie O. Hayward, and Mi- , Harold Wfldo.

It was announced that Miss Elizabeth Moun*f*ey had left tbe society a legacy o\ £550. The subscriptions Amounted to something ovit £1200.

THE ART OF SINGING. — Taking the B»e«th.— Owing to the exclusive direction which tbe lyric drama ha* -taken within the pasf few years, th* true art of singing (says Mathiide Marehesi, in her "Passages from the Life of a Famous Singing Teacher," Jfctrpcr and Brother*) has not only been serionsly neglected but has fallen, a victim to empiricism Thie art, which was formerly a subject of unoeosinf oare and attention, and was 4ft»ly imparted to students by competent teachers, has now become enmonn property. .Every musician — amateur or instrumental professor — fancies himself capable of under-taking;--^he production of the voice aad competent, to teach singing. Each OB* «eek« to 'invent a new system, and each one thinks he has found the right thing. One makes his pupils sing with the mouth shut, - with tbe mouth wide open, and a third with tbe mouth distorted into a kind of grin. A fourth is of opinion that rt is WGoe«3acy to practise at the top of one's voice four or five hours a day, and yet a fifth says the pupil should murmur pianissimo. One prolessjr maintains that there are no registers, another that there are as many as four- or five. One, etill more ignorant than the rest, stajtes that the chest voice is produced from Che cheat, and th« head voice from the head.

And what shall I say about the many impossible theories of taking the breath? Of late it has become the fashion to breathe through the nose wit.h the mouth tightly rloeed, which, if done repeatedly and quickly, produces a very unmusical so>".nd. and is altogether a mistaken notion.

I knew a readier of singing in Vienna who used to place her finger on the larynx of her unfortunate pupils, to prevent it from movinjr up or down. Needless to arid that they all suffered from cramp in the larynx What madness !

Nature is. in this respect, the grandest teacher, for there is virtually but one morle of breathing— the diaphragmatic, o^ abdominal. Clavicular and lateral respiration are t,vvo modes of taking the breath which are fatal to the vocal organ, as they creatt what the most eminent physiologists of the day term "the voPal struggle."

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