THE BEST IN MUSIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 640, 17 April 1929, Page 17

THE BEST IN MUSIC

LECTURE ON APPRECIATION ! Advice upon music, with practical explanations of its beauty, was given to an audience in the Town Hall concert chamber last evening by Mr. Arthur Hirst, F.R.S.A., a noted pianist who has been in Auckland for a brief visit. The lecture recital covered two centuries of musical development and included most of the outstanding factors in emotional and abstract music. Healing with true appreciation, Mr. Hirst said that to appreciate music one need not necessarily study technique, but must learn the “why” rather than the “how” of its composition. For instance, nearly everybody could appreciate emotional music if given an idea of the emotions which inspired it, but abstract musical forms could not be absorbed so readily. His object was to enliven the appreciation of music so that everyone would reap from it its richest fruits and so get the best out of life. Throughout the lecture, Mr. Hirst illustrated in a scholarly way the phases of musical progress which his address covered. In the abstract forms he played a harpsichord selection by Scarlatti, Bach’s prelude in C major, the dance of the blessed spirits from Gluck’s “Orpheus,” the minuet from Mozart’s “Don Juan,” and valses by Schubert and Brahms. In the field of emotional music he chose Beethoven’s “Sonata Pathetique,” a valse and polonaise. and the famous funeral march by Chopin, “The Engulfed Cathedral,” and “Wind Across the Plain.” by Debussy, and “The Sea.” by Palragren..