MUSICAL JOTTINGS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19443, 31 October 1925, Page 21 (Supplement)

MUSICAL JOTTINGS

(By r “C Sharp.”)

I understand that on Wednesday week we are to hear a performance of Gaul s “Holy City,” by the united choirs of Trinity and Gonville Methodist Churches. I understand further that the choirs, which will muster between fifty and sixty voices, will have the assistance of an orchestra of modest but- adequate dimensions. The soloists chosen for the occasion are Airs W. L. Burgess, Miss franklin Browne, Mr B. Hoar, and Mr Ernest Thomas. The “Holy City,” whilst described by its composer as a cantata, is really worthy to bo classed as au oratorio, and with such a body of singers, a capable body of players from the Orchestral Society, such soloists as those mentioned, and the support of the church organ, lovers of choral music will doubtless crowd Trinity Church on what is the anniversary of Armistice Dav.

With this exception, the next few weeks du not promise much in the way of music locally, but then we shall have a busy period with the Operatic Society, the Male Choir, and the Westbourne Choir in quick succession.

So far as Wanganui is concerned, this year has heard little or nothing in the way of overseas musical art is is. Galli-Curci and Kreisler passed us by. We are now waiting to see what musi- ' cal attractions, visiting the Dunedin Exhibition may elect to lighten our musical darkness. I have heard norbing further regarding Sir Thomas Beecham and his orchestra in relation to their proposed tour of the oversea dominions, and nothing has been announced regarding any Dominion tour for the band of the Argyle and Suther- ! land Highlanders at the expiration of

j their Exhibition engagement. I snp- * pose wo may expect to see such solo : artists as Miss Phyllis Lett and Mr i Arthur Jordan who are announced to I visit the Dominion for the Exhibition j Ii : the worst comes to th -1 wort, we shall have to charter Wanganui’s coastal fleet to transport local musiclovers to Dunedin!

The ‘ 1 Daily Mirror” recently published the portrait of Mr Strathie MacKay. a window cleaner “who has three ■ sinfing voices. Dr. James Brown, the musician, finds that he can sing tenor and bass simultaneously, but I that his third voice is less strong.* Well, how much more could he expect? Some years ago there was a street musician in this Dominion who used to play a multitude’ of musical (?) instruments simultaneously by using h’ands, was called the “One man hand.” —but this is the first time I have heard of ! a “Ono- man choir!” * ft ft * A writer in an English illustrated paper says:—T see that the inimitable, quickstep. “Par-k up your Doubles in ve.ur old kit-bhg,” which had such a . v<Tnp during the war. is being revived ialong with “Tipperdry” in the milit-

ary music selected for the Seaichlight feet, elbows, head, etc., all at once. He Tattoo at Wembley. I have often wondered why, when decorations were broadcast after the Armistice, at least an 0.8. E. never went to the composer, for he shared with purveyors of cheap cigarettes hnd gramophones the honour of having helped to win the war. Moreover, it is an unusually good specimen of popular tune, and I advist any of my musically-inclined readers, who may still have doubts whether anything good can come out of such music, to play it over softly tind slowly in the minor key—he (or she) will have lighted on a haunting little nocturne, and put it through a severer test than many a familiar hymn-tune could pass.

A visitor to the Promenade Concerts at Queen’s Hall thus relates his experience: —I have been again to the promenade concerts, to find the same hundreds and hundreds of enthusiasts who stand for hours listening with rapture to the programmes Sir Henry Wood selects. In this vast crowd are young undergraduates down for the vacation, engineers, shop-assistants, bank clerks, typists and waitresses. Though it is usually fairly hot in the Queen’s Hall, those people (some of whom have been on their feet all day long) never seem to show signs of fatigue. Perhaps they find that music is cooling. T saw a young woman sink down on the floor, but she was hurriedly asked to rise by one of the attendants, whose duty it is to see that nobody squats on the floor and that no camp-stools or boxes tare placed on the space allowed for standing. It is interesting to watch the little groups of young, long-haired musicians discussing music during the intervals, and the women from Chelsea, with th3ir Eton crops, brilliantly-coloured frocks and long, flowing capes.

Mention of Sir Henry Wood reminds me that the other day I came across an enthusiastic reference to his recent visit to California, where he conducted a. series of concerts in the famous Hollywood Bowl. The promoters of the concerts cabled to England that Sir Henrv had scored ( ‘ a. sensational success.” The audience at the first, concert numbered eighteen thousand. Sir Henry made his greatest, “hits’ - ’ with modern P.r’ti«h mned* r A nresnnfed hv \ “Planets;” Vaughan Williams’ “London Svmphnnv: ” Elenr’s “Enigma” variations; Delius’s Dance Rhansodv. and Dnnie Ethel Smyth’s prelude “On the Cliffs of Cornwall.” fThe Wreckers.)

j Professor Einstein, whose theorv of ’“Relativity” has made him one of the i most famous living scientists, also has a theory “n regard to Ihe famous vio- , lins of Oremnna. An exchange quotes I him ns sawing: “Violin makers in Perlin claim to have discovered the secret i of making instruments like the old : Oremonas. Strads, .ptc,. buf T do not beilievp thov can do it. Tim great violins 'of olden days were made by highlv sen-

sitive artists who had an understanding of their craft that cannot be reduced to rules and formulas. It was no special wood or varnish or size or shape that gave the violins their rare quality. The makers imparted their souls to the instruments in a manner which defies scientists who rely upon mathematics, physics and chemistry to explain them. The old instruments were individual and personal creations. The new ones are 4 mass products.’ Mass production can never achieve what individual production can.”