THE COMPETITIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2805, 18 December 1907, Page 12

THE COMPETITIONS.

SINGING AND BtOCCTTON. In the course .of bis report to the committee of the Competitions -Society, Mr Baeyerts, the judge in the singing and elocution sections^ aajfl:— •' > . "', in addition to setting apax£ the time from 1 6 clock till 2.90 on alternate days during .the competitions, $or the purpose of' meeting singing «nd elocution competitors, I also devoted the whole of TaMdaf, .Wednesday. Thursday, Friday, ana fttfatday, . from' 19 o'clock tin 6 o'clock for "the same purpose. I have gone through songs with over 120 competitors, stopping them as mistakes occurred, showing them wksxe they were traofig, aaS in each case, as, far tv» suggesting a remedy. I noticed yin many cases an improvement, during' the progress of the competitions, many singers who had , Availed themselves of .the opportunity to , find out therr taistakes irr one song corrected these, ox similar mistake*^ when next they sang. The chief- defects in- the singing this , year^were, faulty, enunciation^ aftd. ipronuacia- . turn, ladk of ' refinement, and faulty .tech- i niijue. I *houM like ,to offer' two prices next yewr to the lady and gentleman respectively who gain most marks in enunciation 'and ■ pronunciation. -Most; singecs seem: 'to thinks that it is qmte~4Umece9fi»ry- -for the rworda of »the song to be heard, and this idea ia fostered in the various concerts which take place in Ihinedin, by the printing -of the words on the urogramaie. One might just atf weirpriiit <he' wjor^s' of a, >ecatation, pr, the words oi a' speech to lie deS.Vefefl. 'a«r to print the words of a song. It "is a titeit admission that one never hears the words, and I think a prize offered will be a stimulus to 'singers to improve their enunciation and pronunciation. "Where these are faulty the story of the song remains untold, ana the singing is mere sounding brass and & tinkling cymbal. I am very strongly of opinion that no prise whatever should be avraTded to competitors who do not gain at least half marks in any given sect'on. Doubtless, in course of time, "competition societies will be inaugurated in various towns throughout New Zealand; ' and it seems to me to be eminently desirable that the standard of the parent society should be a high one. I would also suggest that in future' the song for juniors should be divided into two sections — one for boye, one for girls,: i I have talked 40. -come of ib* choimwiierf, and they agree unanimously that if the girls were excluded, from competition with the i boys, the entries would be much core ' numerous in ' each section. . Moreover^ i* is ' ,de»irabJe that boys' voices should be judged; as auch, arid' 'not in competition with' girTsi ' who in this country are «itncei women before' , they are 16,' whereae the boy's voice id. 16 j exists no longer as such. I would further Suggest that I should be ■ allowed to choose the songs lor next >far. ; Several of the songs chpsen this year -were sot only uneducational in character, . but were often go badly written that it was quite impossible that they should be ev-v.g artistically. The chorus of the children's ! song, for instance, was note for not* tlie " Bell of New York waltz/ and to cite other examples,, the writer oi the song J " Giver of life" .not only has no knowledge ■ whatever of the grammar of music, but she almost always causes the musical accent to fall upon .the unimportant 'woxd in the bar. Without entirely rewriting- this, song.- I make bold to say that it is quite impossible to phrase it intelligently. _, " Bianca " was also .an unfortunate selection^ the composer > is an Italian, . who snows' his lack of know- j pledge of the English language by alsp' em- J p%asising in the same way the -unimportant i wards of a sentence. And to a certain extent Hhis is also 'true in regard to the $ass su?o. Furthermore — and this is a subject I ahould , wish to emphasise «a strongly as possible — the various songs were not proper tests for the different voices. The contralto solo, ior instance, was singable by ««y ordinary mezzo-soprano. The soprano solo was really | a mezo-soprano song also, with an upward > coiuDJksa extending only to G. The bass solo I would have been a good test for the voices but that optional notes were written -when- . ever a. low note occurred; thus the baritones entered for the bass solo an<l sans; the J , optional notes, and the same is true of most | I of the other selection*. I' am not sngge=H»ig . tbat exceptionally difficult songs «hou'd be | £'2t, but I do maintain that ihe ecn^n should ( bj j[air ijisis oi- the- voice to which they aro^ 1 a&sipned; that they g.hould ba well written, : worth studying, and educational in character. ' Tbe^sturaorous song also should, I think, be ( cho<j€n for the competitors. Apparently most ! of thcoa who entered this year failed utterly I to understand the meaning of the words ; " humorous song." I feel convinced that i much good regenerative -work has b^en 3one this year, ard that a very maikod improvement will be rioticeab'e, if the.°e 'uggeations . are adopted in next year's vocal ~performJances. elocution-. The stands rd in e]oyai\nn na« V«en »ai c f-d *a tTia l-at four years at least 50 ;nr o nt.

Tli« performers this year who came as lew down as 10th or 12th would have won easily four or five years aco. As regards the telaotion of pieces, but little -fault can be found. The prepared reading is on* of the £i!*st . bits oi descriptive* writing in the Lnglistt language, and the picture was presented to us with remarkable vividness by most of 4he competitors. 2 mould suggest only that the reading might have been cut down to haif the length with advantage. The children's pieces were all well chosen, and " Sophie Perovskaya" was a maeslficent , test piece.' ' "The ballad of John Rioholion " was also effective, and I would suggest thai Henry Newbolt'e "Captain's all" be included next year. In the Shakespeaxecn dialogue the only defect was, that Rosalind has "all the "fat," and in consideration of this circumsta&ce, my maximum marks for Rosalind's performance were 200, whilst those for Orlando's were 100. More elocutionary competitors than ever availed themselves this year of the opportunity of going through their work with me, .and I was much pleased by the general intelligence of the competitors- The children's performances were in very many instances quite -delightful, atd' " the competitions are becoming the nursery i'ior good and elegant speakers and reciter*