MODERN MUSIC.

Otago Witness, Volume 1851, Issue 3809, 15 March 1927, Page 76

MODERN MUSIC.

MR H. SANTREYS’ VIEWS. - '"Atistralians consider themselves to be well abreast of the times in practically everything, but I can say without fear of contradiction that the people of ?sew Zealand are far "head of Australians ’ their taste for music.” Thus spoke Mr Henry Santrey, of the orchestra that beai his name, to our representative last week.

It was a strange thing, he said, but when he started playing to New Zealand audiences after his tour of Australia he could sense something different in the Dominion listeners, who seemed to react more to the new type of music expounded by his combination. Australians were far too fond of the low types of jazz to be able to appreciate good symphonic music. In dealing with recent tendencies in music, Mr Santrey said it was necessary for one man to be master of many instru’’fiients i the best effects were to be secured. The latest orchestras had about a dozen players who were responsible for about 60 or 70 instruments. Such combinations provided a type of music far removed from that of the blaring jazz band, and the ability to discriminate between the purely jazz and the symphonic was to his mind an indication of a keen taste for the higher class of music and the art generally. New Zealand audiences had struck him as particularly sensitive to the contrasts of jazz and symphony as portrayed on the stage by- his orchestra. Mr Santrey claims to be the originator of the jazz craze in the country- where it first became known. He was at the head of the first "’combination in America that commenced the type of music that has become popularly- known the world oyer as jazz. He started his first band nine years ago, and he claimed that this band represented, the germ of the idea of jazz music, and, although jazz music was constantly being improved, he was quite sure that, in spite of what the critics said about the present-day trend in music, syncopation had- come to stay. People wanted syncopation with melody. The latest music of the day was a combination of melody- and rhythm known as sym? phonic music, and he had predicted m'afiv years ago that the orchestras of the future would play- little else besides symphonic arrangements. There was a certain lilt; he said, in this music which people ■could not resist, and, . as: a result, it woukj appeal for a long time yet. Old favourites would be written in the new rhythm taken from the traditional melodies. In music the artist had to cater for the masses, and he was firmly convinced that the masses throughout the world, and he knew them in every country; demanded syncopated music, not iazz.

The word “jazz,” said Mr Santrey, was never heard in America now. It was taboo. The term “jazz” was associated with ignorance. The name that described music there to-day was symphonic syncopation, by- which he meant the beautiful and irresistible combination of rhythm and melody, and this class .of music was going to last the world for many years to come. It was a vogue that would not die out ouickly.