CLASSICAL MUSIC

Taranaki Daily News, 16 November 1935, Page 13 (Supplement)

CLASSICAL MUSIC

WAY TO UNDERSTANDING

T.P.M.)

(By

Is an understanding of the so-called classical music only to be reached after years of study or is it possible for the merest layman to grasp some of the hidden beauty of works hallowed by age, tradition and a form of social superiority? The question is prompted by the performance at Hawera on Wednesday night under Miss Evelyn Dowling, New Plymouth, of Beethoven’s C Minor Symphony. The performance of the work, one of the greatest in all music, was a courageous attempt that can only be admired, but one wonders how many enjoyed the work for its beauty rather than for its novelty. Hawera is famous for its musical interests and probably a greater proportion of the audience would have derived immense satisfaction from the hearing than in many other towns and cities of New Zealand. To those who have not had the advantage of study of some musical instrument, classical music, by implication, carries suggestions of severely highbrow music from which anyone with sense would shy like a wounded stag. The number who declare, quite seriously, that they cannot understand, and consequently cannot like, classical music is amazing, and the proportion who are content to leave it at that is still greater. Yet it is the writer’s belief that people with those views are missing one of the greatest enjoyments in life. Under the cloud of “not understood,” they are content, for their musical appreciation, to listen to works where the melody is saccharine in its sweetness and contains no true value.

The alleged misunderstanding is concerned not only with major orchestral works, but with opera, sonatas and the rest. Under those severely plain headings beauty of the sheerest fragrance and delicacy, pulsing with lyricism and melody, and graced by man’s hand, lies concealed. Yet, to the majority of people, the Etude in A flat, or the Fantasie Impromptu in C Sharp Minor are stumbling blocks too great to be avoided.

It seems a pity, therefore, that the greatest composers did not Invest their works with titles of more appeal. Yet it would be disastrous in some ways if those unostentatious' titles, offered with perfect humility by the composers, were to be altered and something catchy put in their place. For my part, I hope it won’t happen. It has been claimed that the radio has played a tremendous part in developing people to an understanding of classical forms of music. In some ways it has, and in some ways it hasn’t. It has not because radio offers too selective a range of entertainment. If a symphony is announced the simple operation of turning a switch is necessary if one does not wish to hear it. And tests would show that when symphonies are announced, the amount of switching that goes on would be surprising.

I believe that the cinema can have a greater effect on developing true musical appreciation. Allied to a story that is usually human interest as, only Hollywood can produce human in-'A terest, operatic arias or even great orchestral works can be foisted onto the unsuspecting public till they like it. The popularity of Grace Moore's films has shown that. Where a tremendous opportunity for good lies with the film producers is in the production of complete operas without the conventional photographic trickery and deception as practised to-day. Even the mightiest conceptions of Richard Wagner could be produced on the ?reen without the wangling and trickery necessary to produce them on the stage of even the largest opera houses. What exactly is understanding of music? As one whose knowledge of music is restricted to a ' regrettable degree, the writer believes understanding is a mis-used and misapplied term especially designed to trap laymen into a belief that they are without the pale and creatures on whom sympathy is wasted. Programme notes supplied with most recitals usually credit the composer with all sorts of fantastic things that the composer probably never even thought of. And laymen trying to read into the themes, tragedies and terrific turmoil are completely baffled when they fail. As most people do. Composers have been credited by critics with all sorts of things, in the same way as Noel Coward was credited by critics after writing “Cavalcade” with a glorious sense of patriotism. In his own words, Coward wasn’t. He was concerned with producing a play at what he believed to be the right time for its greatest success. Two things which have influenced the trend of distaste of classical music are the social superiority it has enjoyed and the attitude of musicians. Concerts by celebrities touring New Zealand have been, one could imagine, splendidly designed for the wearing of the ermine and the lace and not for the enjoyment of perfect works perfectly played. Similarly musicians, a close corporation, are apt on the slightest provocation to talk “shop” in bewildering style and to prattle on about themes and variations until the listener is in a maze. If musicians themselves would only settle down to enjoy the works, instead of listening for the inevitable clarion call of a false note on the tuba, appreciation of music would be greater. Beethoven is one of’“the company of master musicans. Bach, Couperin, Mozart, Schubert, Verdi, Chopin and scores of others have produced matchless works. Listen to the “Unfinished Symphony,” to any of Chopin, to the slow movement of “Sonata Pathetique” and enjoy emotional and intellectual pleasure at its greatest.