MUSIC EXAMINATIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3954, 24 December 1929, Page 49

MUSIC EXAMINATIONS.

IMPROVED SYSTEM ADVOCATED. MR ALFRED HILL'S VIEW’S. WELLINGTON, December IS. “ I want to see the musical people here and put a scheme before them by which they can run their own music examinations like we do in Australia, make them pay handsomely, and keep thousands of pounds a year in the country,” stated Mr Alfred Hill of the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music. “ With that money you could, for instance, run a~ symphony orchestra, a professional one I mean, in the Dominion. New Zealand is big enough to run on-e. We have a symphony orchestra in Australia and the Government subsidises it to the extent of £3OOO a year, but that is only enough to pay the leads in the wood, wind, and brass, a double bass, and a leader. All the rest have to be made up by Conseryatorium students. The Conservatorium is run by the Government and is the only one in the English-speaking world that is so run. It is a paying proposition too. I have taken the trouble to bring over the figures and all particulars of our examination system so that the musical people over here can study them for themselves. It is not that I have any axe to grind but because of my love of New Zealand, and because I want to show musical people here how they can help themselves in this matter. I would like to get in touch with the Music Teachers’ Association, if you have one, or any similar organisation and give the members these figures and show them how they can run their own music examinations. Of course, they should really be run by the University, and the Government might make music a subject for the leaving certificate so that everyone would have to take that certificate and no other. That is what we are doing in Australia, but for New Zealand it would not be worth while for the English examiners to come out to this side of the world. I do not want to belittle at all the work done by the English examining boards, but why should not we do the work ourselves? Why should those thousands of pounds a year go out of the country and we get nothing for the money except a few certificates? The idea is that local people can examine the students better than people from afar because the local people know the local conditions better and can help tire students by giving them advice on the spot. We could also have special examiners for each branch of music instead of haying a violin professor, for example, examining in singing and so on. They have chairs of music now in Auckland and in Christchurch. They have had them for years, and if you had chairs of music also in Wellington and Dunedin the four professors of music could run a conservatorium for the whole of the Dominion, and the examination fees would pay for the conservatorium.”