NEW ZEALAND CHOIRS

Taranaki Daily News, 14 November 1934, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND CHOIRS

IMPRESSION’S OF ENGLISHMAN. ■MORE, RIGOROUS CHOICE NEEDED. By Telegraph—Press. Association. Auckland, Last Night. “The. choirs in New Zealand are too big*, there are too many women in them, and you use organ music too much,” said Dr. Sydney H. Nicholson, director of the. School of English Church. Music, when summing up his impressions of Anglican church music after touring the Dominion. “You must have, boys’ voices in a choir for it to be any good,” he added. “In England the proportion of women’s to men’s voices is about one in twenty. There is a place for women altos in a choir,'but for other female voices there is only limited need. “Another thing I noticed is the enormous size of the choirs in this Dominion. Many are double-the size of that in Westminster Abbey. A far more rigorous selection of voices cofild' be made. There should be far more unaccompanied singing and the organ should not. be used to pull an efficient choir through.”

The choice of music was. often unfortunate, he said. During the whole of his tour, with the single exception of the Christchurch Cathedral, he had not heard a piece of classical church music. He suggested a system of scholarships to enable capable New Zealanders to study in England, Everything depended on the support, of the general body of churchgoers and on their being persuaded to explore, the treasures of church music.