TO ENCOURAGE MUSIC.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 28, 10 March 1914, Page 5

TO ENCOURAGE MUSIC.

The Canterbury Society of Musicians has decided to encourage students of music to study form with a view to composing properly by offering an annual prize for the best composition in a set form. Credit for this excellent suggestion belongs to the secretary of the society, Mr Arthur Lilley, who in conversation this morning said that his idea was to encourage students of music to learn form, an essential to composition, of course, but one in which the average student was not proficient. He believes that there is plenty of talent in Canterbury which only needs encouragement and assistance, and hopes that, should these competitions bring to light a student of exceptional ability, the society will later be able to assist in getting his compositions published. Being asked whether it was intended to limit the competitions to instrumental music, Mr Lilley said that the sonata form was chosen for the firßjt competition because it was a simple form which yet gave budding composers opportunity for original treatment (though they were not expected to strive after difficult composing), but different forms would be set' each year, and choral writing might be a later development. Soma of the first modern composers, he added, had received their .first opportunity through such competitions, and though they would not make fine composers they often led to their discovery. The idea certainly deserves the support of everyone interested in the development of music in New Zealand.