BAND GOSSIP.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5460, 11 January 1896, Page 6

BAND GOSSIP.

FROM EAR AND NEAR.

[by tomtom.] The Jubilee of the New South Wales opera Maritana, was celebrated on Nov. 16 last. Vincent Wallace, the talented composer, spent some years in New South Wales, and during his residence on an upcountry station, composed the major portion of the evergreen Maritana. " Alas those Chimes," the " Angelus," " Scenes that are Brightest," and other sweet . melodies abound in. this peerless opera, and it has the distinction of being a colonial production !

" William Tell," Invercargill, writes that both the bands are doing well and main-, tain their usual high standard. The City; Band is in a somewhat unpleasant fix over its art union/, and some of its members have had to intarview the local Stipendiary Magistrate and try to explain away certain alleged breaches of the Lotteries Act. Mr W. Craigie, so well known in New Zealand and an ex Garrison bass player has been shooting with much brilliancy, and won from a largo field. Age does not affeot Craigie's skill with the rifle, and my correspondent says " The old gentleman shoots like a Boer." It is more than likely the ex-bandsman will be along at the Federal rifle meeting at Oaniaru. Both Invercargill bands have done a lot of playing this season, and bid fair to hold up their high prestige. The Timaru Contest Committee will shortly wind up, and from reliable accounts the Timaruvians will have every reason to take much credit for the success of the contest. Mr Griffith has promised to favour me with particulars by-and-bye.

"Talks with Bandsmen," by Algernon Rose, contains the following regarding the cornet:— "Those melodies most suited for fche cornet are most adaptable to the human voice. .* The Lost Chord' is always affective. "Why? Because it lies well within the compass of the cornet, and displays its best qualities. A proof of the troy a cornet blends with that of the human voice is that the Eev H. E. Haweis, a connoisseur of repute, employed, until he augmented his choir with ladies, a cornet to play in unison with fche part sung by the trebles, and another cornet to play in unison with the altc-B during divine service. As for the assertion that the cornet was a 'vulgar' instrument, its tone depended on the artistic feeling of the player. If the player were by nature a brute, his tone would be brutal. If he were of sesthetic temperament, his tone would be refined. As for a vulgar tone being more suited for a ball room than a concert orchestra, the argument was illogical. In a good ball room band the greatest refinement is needed, because fewer players are employed than in a large orchestra. An instrument of vile tone in a big orchestra becomes doubly unpleasant in a more confined area. Let musicians be just. Is not the violin often called the ' Mng ' of musical instruments ? Yet what sounds more detestable than a bad violin, as fiddled outside a tavern ? To attribute to the cornet the barbarism of its player, is as irrelevant as to vilify the fiddle because of the drunken rapscallion who scrapes it. The celebrated violinist Geminiani wrote : — ' God save me from a poor fiddler who knows nothing of music!' For the word •fiddler' comet-player, with a shoddy instrument, might be substituted. Knowing how habitually the cornet is used in place of the trumpet, it seems indeed strange ihat composers still persist in writing for fche almost obsolete instrument. In ballroom music Herr Waldteufel has been one of the first foreign composers to write for fche cornet. His pretty polka, ' Les Folies/ which was played nightly under his baton, by Mr Fred Eettlewell at the promenade concerts in 1886, and invariably Bncored,. displays many of the best qualities of the cornet. At a recent State ball, conducted by Herr Gottlieb, the trumpet parts were transposed and played on the cornet by Messrs Jager and Charles Appleford. Such transpositions are not always easy. Mr Appleford instances having, on one occasion, had to transpose at, sight a set of Strauss waltzes from D flat to key of F. The difficulty of this was increased when the conductor, to make the composition sound more brilliant, desired the players to transpose the written music a semitone higher. This meant, for the poor cornet, transposing from B flat to F sharp, or a fifth and a half at sight. ■ Amongst the best bond fide London cornet players at the present time may be mentioned : —Mr W. Ellis, of the Philharmonic, Bichter, and Royal Italian Opera; Mr L. W. Hardy, Crystal Palace; Mr F. H. Backwell, of the Eoyal Italian Opera and Promenade Concerts ; Mr A. M'Eleney, Professor at Kneller Hall ; Mr T. Clinton, Prince of Wales's Theatre ; Mr Charles Gray, of the German Opera; BandSergeant Charles Knight, of the Grenadier Guards; Mr A. H. Smith, of the Promenades; Mr J. L. Simon, Crystal Palace Orchestra and Alhambra; Mr A. Webb, .bolo comet . Westminster Aquarium ; Messrs F. G. James, A. Gay and F. L. Kettlewell, solo cornets London County Council bands; Mr J. Williams, late Eoyal Artillery and Grenadier Guards , and Mr Herbert Godfrey, son of Mr Charles Godfrey. Of lady players on the comet, one of the best is Miss Beatrice Pettitt, ■who recently played at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, in Gutzmacher's Eomance for 'trumpet' with orchestra. In the United States of America there are many lady cornet-soloists. The 'Boston Cornet Conservatory/ for instance, is one of several institutions devoting special attention to the instruction of ladies. Ladies, however, .seldom get so full a tone from] wind instruments as do men, being less ] physically capable." ' ' j It is evident that "Theßayreuth Festival " is fast losing the German element. Several English instrumentalists were engaged for the orchestra at the last one, j and the fact of two leading- English ! vocalists having been employed has not been received well by the Germans.