AIMS AND BASIC PRINCIPLES OF MUSIC SCHOOL

Wanganui Chronicle, 18 May 1950, Page 8

AIMS AND BASIC PRINCIPLES OF MUSIC SCHOOL

“Music reflects the life and thought of the age and the community which produces it, ’ said Professor Vernon Griffiths, director of music at Canterbury University College, when addressing students at the music schoo’ at present being held at the New Zea’ land Friends’ School, Wanganui, on the basic principles of music education in the community. Dr. Griffiths is director of the school. “The individual composer,’’ he aaid, “is the product of his age and his community and both are reflected in his music. Folk-music owes its life in no instance to ont individual com- ■ poser. It is significant that, when a j composer wants to write music exi pressing the very soul of his people, !he goes back to that people’s folkI tunes for inspiration, foi example, •modern renaisssance in music of Rus»sia, Norway and Britain, ’ said Dr. Griffiths. “Music expresses the life and thought of the society which gives it birth. It expresses the culture of c, people, and the culture of a people is the result of human life and work. The music of the people is a delicate-ly-balanced indicator of the condition of society, healthy or otherwise. Produced by a community, it was, and should be, used by the community in choral and instrumental groups. It is a social thing primarily. It demands active participation rather than passive acceptance. Ind>idual proficiency in musical performance 5s valuable chiefly because it makes more effective the individual contribution to the music making of the group, and highly proficient individuals set standards for emulation. MASS OF THE PEOPLE. “No real musical culture can grow in a country unless and until the masses of the people make music a form of natural self expression. People must know music as a vital thing in their lives. It has been well said that every culture must love the inspiration of a religion. And it may well be that the decline in natural music making is the result of the lack of any religious faith. In other words, the product of materialism. Music cannot take the place of religion, but it. has definitely a regenerative power.”

Dr. Griffiths said the aim of the school was to restore music-making in the community. People ignorant of the aims, he said, charged us with wanting only large masses of music makers without a thought for the standards of their music-making. “That charge is fundamer.Uily baseless,’’ he said.

“We do want large masses of people to be made enthusiastic lor music making, but th it is because enthusiasm provides the necessary driving force to urge people on to secure everincreasing proficiency in their musicmaking. Let it always be understood that full satisfaction in music-making demands steadily rising standards.

“The basis for admission to a musicmaking groop must be as broad as possible,” he said. “In fact the only essential requirement is the ability Io sing in tune. We must not. expect in New Zealand balanced numbers of sonranos, contraltos, tenors and basses. Due to climate, perhaps, no amateur choir here can expect such balanced numbers.

‘“Our material is ‘trebles’ and ‘men.’ The former includes women, adolescent girls, young girls and young boys. ‘‘Men’ include adult men and adolescent boys. If we accept lhat grouping, and we do, we have immediately vast numbers on which to draw.

“The idea, then, is the whole community of post-primary school, of church congregation, or rural area, and so on, as—in each case—a partsinging choir. Then opportunitv for everyone in that community to learn by class-tutor methods and daily class practices one or more instruments of the orchestra or the band. As soon as we look for small specialised groups we are • excluding the others. So the mass must come first at any rate. “Who is to do all thfc?” he asked.

“Leaders and their communities, and wp are all here as leaders or potential leaders, to learn the methods and adult education exists to help. As music is a language, we must learn to speak it, to read it. and some of us to write it Music is the language of friendship and co-operation.”