The Empire in Music.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14211, 28 May 1910, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Empire in Music.

DR. HARRISS'S GREAT SCHEME. We have received from Sir Hugo Guriitz. who represents Dr. Harriss in New Zealand, a bundle of clippings from Home papers, which show that the Press of the Old Country is taking a lively interest in the doctor's project for the establishment of Imperial reciprocity in music. First let us note an extract which records that Dr. Harriss had just arrived at Liverpool from Canada, concluding his tour in connection with arranging an All Red and All Round the World Musical Festival. Interviewed on arrival, he said he not onlv wanted a Festival next year:' he hoped it would be possible to arrange one every other year. He had iust completed -10.000 miles of travelling on the sea, and the prospects of achieving his aim were encouraging. Wherever he went he had met with the most cordial reception, and the whole musical profession, as well as the civic authorities, • had extended to him then- greatest j sympathy and support. That he had j been so well received was particularly gratifying to him, for it was the patriotism of the people, expressed through the medium of music, that ho wished to arouse. He felt' he had achieved this, and could now arrange, the iinai details of the great- six months' tour. The festival would be inaugurated J>v the visit to Canada of the Sheffield choir, numbering about 200 members. They would go on to Australia, Tasmania, New' Zealand, and South Africa, then back home, making, a circuit of the Colonies. It was a great undertaking, but he came back from his exploratory trip, full of hopeful enthusiasm. People in the old country had no idea of the spirit prevailing in our Colonies, nor did thev realise what the Colonies meant to us: but he was delighted with the very strong evidence- he found of loyaltv anil love for Great Britain. The assistance rendered to him by Karl Grey, Governor-General of Canada, as well as by the administrators of the other places he visited, was invaluable, and they were all prepared to give him their whole-hearted sympathy. Next we have a descriptive account of the project in the "Evening Standard and St. James's Gazette," which says, inter alia :—■ When first announced the idea of taking a chorus of 200 voices round the world seemed like the scheme of a | madman. But during the last six | months reports have come from the i Oversea. Dominions testifying to the ,' heartiness and enthusiasm with which I Dr. Charles Harriss's project has been j received. Everywhere the Canadian—- | be might be called Imperial—musician j has met with whole-hearted support '[ not only from professional and amateur music-lovers, hut from prominent civic and administrative authorities. Not content with any written or cabled assurances of "goodwill, Dr. ' Harriss, with his accustomed energy | and thoroughness, has visited the va'rij ous countries of the Empire himself to i ascertain the true feeling towards his ; idea and to sow the seed of artistic : union. On every side lie found not j only a passive, but an astonishingly j active interest in his plans. j Dr. Harriss intends "to sail about the j last week of March, 1911, with 200 ] members of the Sheffield Choir "for Canada. With them will go their wellknown chorusmaster, Dr. Henry Coward, who, together with Dr. Harries, will conduct jointly the festivals to be I given. The Oversea Dominions will be j visited in the' following order :—Canada. I New Zealand, Tasmania, Australia, and ■ South Africa, and from Caue Colony i home, disembarking at Southampton. , in London, before the chorus is disI persed, a concert will be given bv the ' travel-stained choristers. I Roughly speaking, a month will he ; spent in each country, though a longer i stay will be made in Canada and Australasia, in the latter continent the/

.-isit exteudiug in :«-i (Jiiys. With ihr. !< "linir will <r<i souip orchestral players, , I ■;fiv.?r:)l ni'iimiin'iit. .soloists, jinri a < louble vocal quartet party. Bui, iioi.li 1 he ehnralists and the instrumentalist s J vill lie augmented in many places by oral forces lor certain works, such as '• "Messiah" :i!!'l "Elijah," thus bringing ! 3limit that artistic intercourse between ! British musio-lovcrs which is the basis j >t i)r. Harriss's reciprocity scheme. -Not a nolo of music "ill be necessary ! in the hands of the- members of the j visiting chorus during the tour, for the. ivholo of the repertory is to be sung I from memory. Jl has been said that j the Sheffield Chorus could give s. week's] Festival from the works already stored ! ing their minds. Certainly the programme of the. projected tour points to the truth of this. The repertory will include ''The Messiah," '•Elijah.'' '-Golden Legend,'' j Eigar's "Dream of Gerontius" and ' "The Kingdom/' Verdi's "Requiem," Berlioz's "Faust," Bach's "B minor Mass" and "Sing Ye," Parry's "Blest Pair of Sirens," - Stanford's '"The Revenge," Cliffo's "North-East "Wind," anil Dr. Harriss's "Pan" and "Sards of Dee." .A selection of madrigals, glees, and modern part-songs by Mackenzie, Parry, .Stanford, Corder," Elgar, Failing, P.antock, Boughton, Coward. Harriss, and others will also be included in the British chornlists' "travelling stock." Before Dr. Harriss left England last summer there were 037 aonfieants for the 200 places in Dr. Coward's chorus. Tin' tour will cost over £50,000, not a .shilling of which is guaranteed 'beforehand to Dr. Harriss by Oversea. States. The same journal, on the same date, in a leading article on "Sons and Songs of the Empire," writes of exOverseas men in Parliament with much favour, their experience of the Dominions and Dependencies making their services a.s legislators exceptionally valuable. Then a soecial reference is made to the Sheffield Choir's tour of the world :—"Much good was done by the York Choir, which three or four years as;o visited Dusseldorf and other great German towns, and wherever they went created a bond of musical sympathy. Much good will be done bv these beautiful voices from Yorkshire when they chant in the cities of our brothers across the ocean, the last fight of Sir Richard Greville in the "Revenge," or give them a hint of the I manly vigour that still thrills in Old England's veins when the "North-east Wind" blows through Cliffc's music. It would be difficult to find a better way j of reviewing the tie between the I Mother Country and her children.'' I Next we have London .soecial correspondent's accounts of the Sheffield Musical l.'nion's triumph in Beethoven's! Mass in D. and Bach's greatest motet ! "Sing Ye." "Beethoven's work is one j that is attempted by fe-.v musical cor- I porations. and those that have come ! through the ordeal with flying colours j can be counted on the digits of a one- i armed man. Among the number as- ! suredly is that which covered I itself with, more resolendentTglory than any of the exuberant Yorksh'iremen present had anticipated, delighting the grand old field-marshal of orchestration who was at the head of affairs. Dr. Erenter." The "Yorkshiremen." it is stated, were trained for this performance by Dr. Coward, who is to be conductor of the choir on their Imperial tour. Dr. Coward was recalled * four times after the performance, and. says the correspondent, "the entire performance was one that will Etand out prominently in the Musical Union's annals to the credit of Dr. Coward and the chorus. Dr. Harriss, who has just returned from his tour, was present, and expressed his delight and his confidence in the choir." Finally, the "Standard" of 'a later date, anticipates a. great work in prospect:— "One or the most remarkable features of the forthcoming Festival of Empire will be the appearance of the Imperial Choir of four thousand voices. The formation of this gre..t organisation is certainly one of the most" ambitious of modern musical undertakings. Dr. Charles Harriss is to be congratulated on having so important and appropriate a body of choristers ready when invited to take uoon himself the musical direction of the Festival of Empire and Pageant of London. The selection was, however, a natural one. For several years in succession his name has been associated with the institution of concerts representative of Home and Oversea music on Emiiire Dav. The founding of the Imperial Choir is merely a step further in the development of his life-long endeavours in the cause of "musical reciprocity throughout the Empire." No other conductor, therefore, could have been chosen to represent more adequately the Imperial spirit in music," and." from the same point of view, have been more worthy of the honour than tin's enterprising Canadian musician. The Imperial Choir was in process of actual formation when the idea of an Empire Pageant was still in the clouds. Loudon, therefore, would have had its Empire Day concert with Dr. Harriss in

command all l.lif same lliis year,, festival or no festival, with Mm difference ih;;l, Dip. Imoerial Choir would h;ivo lakon the place of the. clioriin Jormerly used, unci tho Crvstal J'alacci would l,j lve .substituted the Albert; Hall. Nothing, however, wuld bo more satisfactorv than the nresent arrangement, namely, that "tin's great |iody of four thousand Binders .should inaugurate its existence- ami an important Imperial event at the .sans* time. ' The, idea, was mit in train for realisation last summer, hv Dr. Harms, hclnre he Ic-ft England, hv enlist- | |"K the co-operation of no less thaa J I'-rty Choral Societies and their conjtlwtnrs (Societies and conductors named), and by offering prizes of £IOO or the bast Empire Chorus. Thirtvtureo composers sent ii, works iuid t.wo ol these were selected for inclu- ; M'-Ji in the programme of the ' J'esLival. Hpeakin K of this great undertaking; totho -.Standard," Dr. Harris* said :- Of course, I should have been oowerle«s had lt not been for the heaftv eo. op'-numn of the forty conductors " who have , lo t only lent their forces' but have iiKjelatigabJy rehearsed then, in the var.ous items of the festival pro|is to take them in sections, snv a thousand each for a few rehearsals, then to run the music through once 01 t.wce w,th the whole choir en mass 9. Hut I never imagined," continued Dr. mrnss • nhlin 1 coudlß . ted a f hu Hired smgers at my nrst Empire : ' n ln . L Vr ,d 1 ? n before an overifowJ»K Queens Hal, that 1 should havo an Imperial Choir before me in a vear crowd by a thousand voices. But the or two outnumbering that chorus and musical recprocity' between these choirs is just an illustration of what lam working for, y ear in nad vp;l * out, to bring about between the variwT1 tr,eS °!' t1, .?, 8, ' dominions. iV™ I know ,t will come about I have just been round the great 'red line ol the world, and evervwhere mv proposed tour of the Emniro next vea'r With the Sheffield Choir and J)r Kenrv Coward was enthusiastically taken no In the great Oversea centres we shall have the Imperial Choir over again, lor the local choristers will join forces with the visiting cho,r, for which purpose they are now rehearsing soecial works. \ou w oU ui be surprised at the present lush standard of cj !nrn i „•,,,,;,„,. j„ A „\,_ tralia and ]\ew Zealand. What part pl.ins for 'musical reeiorocitv ' I cannot afc present tell. Suffice ' to sa", that patriotism—yes, musical nntriotl | tiolling which one might attempt anyThe Festival of the Emniro. we may ! remark m conclusion. K r~, Wd for F n | P'.re Dav May 24th'. I )u , ittul^Z i Wi-r .1 k n , he P r °xmmm o of this Ik-eV, V " Gol 'i lt ? lllf, "'n!« ns. will bo 1 Zealand. SOme mati "«« in New