MUSICAL JOTTINGS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 291, 7 December 1929, Page 20 (Supplement)

MUSICAL JOTTINGS

(By

" C Sharp.”)

Judging by the widespread expressions of approval the Orchestral Concert on Thursday last achieved a success even greater than usual. Tonepitch and precision were all commendable, and the tonal range and attention to detail w r ere greater than that usually attained by amateur bodies. Local musicians of high standing and long experience have described the performance as the finest ever put on by a local orchestra. Mr George Ellwood, the well-known cellist, who was present, enthusiastically eulogised the orchestra’s work, and described the perf< nuance of the double fugue which concludes the “ Jupiter 11 Symphony as “highly professional.” This movement seems to have impressed critics and laymen alike. It is one of the most intricate works, as in many parts a false entry by any section of the orchestra is irretrievable. When it is realised that four sections of the orchestra frequently commence the same theme at the distance of one beat from one another, the task of keeping the grip upon a body of fifty players many of them young and eager—may be imagined. The * 1 Slavonic Rhapsody” aroused great enthusiasm, and there was plenty of colour in this dramatic number. The keenness of the young players, and the steadying influence of the experienced hands, made the concert interesting, and the future development of the orchestra will be sympathetically watched by musiclovers. Ernest Short has been engaged to sing the baritone solos in the “Messiah” for the Royal Choral Union Wellington, December 14, and Levin Choral Society December 16. The Wanganui Society of Professional Musicians will in future be known as the New Zealand Society of Professional Teachers of Music, Wanganui Division. This change was decided on at the final meeting for the year, which was held at the Y.MC.A. on Monday evening last. Similar action, which is being taken by similar bodies throughout the Dominion, will bring into being a central body actually representing all the music teachers’ societies. This body will keep before Parliament and the public matters affecting the cause of music and musicians generally. After the transaction of business on Monday evening, the members enjoyed a programme of concerted music, including a Beethoven Trio for viola and two violins, played by Misses Burnet and Hutchens and Mrs Cunningham, an original Trio for pianoforte, violin and cello by Mr Gordon Mcßeth, played by the composer, with Miss Dorothy Hughes-Johnson and Mr A. Ranisay, Haydn’s String Quartet No. 40, played by Miss Bringezu, Messrs Collier, Naumann and

Sharland, and a vocal trio (Clifford Page’s arrangement of the negro spiritual, * 4 Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”), sung by Masses Allen, Blanchett and Perrett. A dainty supper brought a pleasant evening to a close. (During the business portion of the meeting the president (Miss M. B. Richmond) and the secjbtary (Mr C. G O. Naumann) were appointed to represent the society at the annual conference, to be held in Palmerston North in January next. ♦ * ♦ ♦

The Oxford Co-operative Choral Society began a new departure in the performance of choral music at the end of July. Mr G. Mortimer Thornton, the conductor, is convinced of the necessity of taking music to the front doors of the Oxford poor, and singing for them: “Wc want women to come to their doorsteps just as they are, in their work-a-day clothes and with their babies in their mtns. It is no use asking them to put on their best clothes and come to some hall: that is not what we want. We want to give them music in their own streets. Most of these people get no music at all. The rich, on the other hand, get what they pay for, and plenty of invitation concerts thrown in.” • • • •

Air B. S. Bucknail, a South Indian coffee planter now in London on holiday relates how an H.M.V. portable gramophone charmed a huge cobra. As deadly cobras were observed close to his bungalow, he secured the services of a snake charmer. The first catch was a cobra measuring over six feet in length, and which had been known to have lurked about the plantation for a dozen years. When its poison fangs had been extracted, the reptile dropped ten yards away from the gramophone on which the record 4 ‘My Blue Heaven” (Jesse Crawford on a Wurlitzer organ) was being played. The cobra crawled to the portable, raised its head as if fascinated by the music, and made no attempt to escape. When the music stopped, the cobra lay flat on the ground, but rose again when the record was replayed. The snake charmer, who performed his magic with the aid of a pipe, had never seen a gramophone, and was greatly bewildered to know where the strains of the organ were emanating from.

The opinion that I expressed recently—that picture orchestras would soon be restored, appears to be shared by English musical writers. One of the latter, in Musical Opinion, writes: — “The 4 talkie’ situation, in so far as it concerns music and musicians, is still one large mark of interrogation, and it will be interesting to see what the outcome of it all will be. At the moment, one hears on the one hand that, many of the big cinemas have sacked their orchestras; others arc advertising “Silent Films, with Orchestral Accompaniment.” My own feeling is that, talkies or no talkies, the orchestras interlude, played by a visible orchestra conducted by a smart young man with white kid gloves, will never cease to be a powerful attraction to movie patrons: and when the initial novelty of the talkies has worn off, I shouldn’t be surprised to see all of the orchestras re-engaged. * * ♦ •

The same writer comments facetious. Iy upon the announcement that Mark Hambourg is to impersonate Beethoven in a “talkie.” lie says: —“A London daily announces that Mark Hambourg is to appear as Beethoven in a “talk-and-music presentation of the complete life-story of the composer.” A slightly tall order! 4 ‘Mr Hambourg,” adds our informant, with commendable restraint, “is a competent actor.” Knowing what film producers are capable of when let loose on a theme of this kind, I will eat my hat if a strong feature of this production is not the ‘‘Limelight” Sonata. ♦ • # ♦

Telephoning is a tricky business, and never more tricky than when the copy deals with music. At Liverpool the competing juvenile orchestras playezl the “Masque Suite” arranged by Dunhill from Handel. A journal which shall be nameless, for the thing might happen to any, told its readers that these had played handbell music, and then went on to inform them that Mr W. H. Reed, the adjudicator, said he thought that this was the sort of music that ought to be cultivated in Wales. Mr Reed’s friends were probably surprised, but w T hat he was made to mean w’as not what he meant. Still may we not wonder what notion of an eisteddfod is entertained in the office of the journal in question, when nobody suspected anything was wrong?”