MUSICAL EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12732, 30 March 1909, Page 7

MUSICAL EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND

By C. A. Young. ~IL~ Headers of the published report of the president's address to the conference of delegates from the nine branches of the Society of Professional Musicians of New Zealand, and of the discussion which fallowed, will be surpiised to be thcii* informed of the lamentable want ot k.mwledge displayed by some of the delegates. ' In a previous article some relereijce has been made to the subjects more or less freely discussed by the delegates; let us now consider "The Desirability of Uniform Pitch." No sane musician, of however little experience, will for one moment doubt the desirability of establishing a uniform pitch, but we may all well doubt if anything the professional musicians of New Zealand-7-or, for the matter of that, Australasia — have to say will affect the question. If the vested interests which are opposed to any alteration can be overcome, it will only be achieved by a common understanding and the united action of all the Conservatoria, Universities, and other schools of music in Europe and America, and, however desirable, it would seem the time for this is not yet. As the president said, "The matter was one of great importance to musicians all over the world," but he got sadly beyond his knowledge when he asserted that "nearly all musicians in England and on the Continent were in favour of it," and 12 months' experience of musical life in London would have saved him from the inconsistencies with which he sought to support his motion that the musical pitch should be fixed at C 5 22. Fortunately the commensense of the conference saved the situation by reieotinc' -the motion. For public information, let us (consider the question of MUSICAL PITCH. Musical pitch is determined by the number of vibrations a string or reed will emit in a second of time, when put in motion by drawing a resined bow of hair over the string, as in a stringed instrument : by forcing air against reeds, as in organs and wood wind instruments; by the lips vibrating in a cup mouthpiece, as in metal wind instruments; or over any orifice; and the difference of opinion now agitating the musical world is as to whether a higher or lower number of air vibrations shall produce and establish the sound of ■;he middle C on the pianoforte; the high oitch being approximately C 5 40, and the lower C 5 20. This agitation has been originated mainly by the great public singers, who, after fulfilling an operatic engage--nent in the comparatively warm and dry 'limate of France or Italy, where the lower oitch obtains, are expected, when they accept an engagement to sin«y in opera in Mie colder and damper climate of England, to sing in the highest pitch of the musical world. Their example was soon followed by the thousands of mediocre singers, who, possessing a few good notes in the limited register of their voices, desired to sing the music the great masters wrote for finer voices of extended compass, and, as a matter of course, these were, for obvious reasons, supported by the great army of song writers, music sellers, vocal music teachers, and, later, by the detestable class of royalty song singers, who demand a royalty fee to impose a meretricious class of songs upon an ignorant and credulous musical public. Opposed to this attempt to lower the musical pitch are the numerous stringed and wqod and metal wind instrumentalists, for whom — after all — the »reat masters of music wrote. Many of these instrumentalists are in possession of valuable instruments, which it is doubtful if they could be replaced by instruments of equal merit and a lower pitch in this modern day, and what owner of a noble violin would be willing to sacrifice the brilliant tone of his instrument .by slackening the tension of the strings, to suit the average voices of choirs 'and secular choral societies, or the makers of inferior, though perhaps popular, pianofortes? Mr Webbe stated in his address to the delegates that "One reason why they could not get the uniform (sic) pitch was that the military band instruments would require to be replaced," and that "the larger orchestras in Great Britain had two set 3 ox iijit/uments." The writer would have 'Laii^d the last assertion if we had not Mr Webbe's word for it, but, anyhow, the statement supports the opposition of the military bands, which is a truly formidable one, when we consider these number 3ome 200. If we add to these the superior instruments made and being made by the great pianoforte firms, and the better class of stringed and wood and metal wind instruments still being made, we will begin to understand that lowering the musical pitch may mean the general use of an inferior make of musical instruments, the general support of mediocrity, and, as a consequence, the degradation of raueic as an art. There is certainly much to be said in favour of lowering the musical pitch, if only the vested interests opposed to this could be moved to agree to ;t.; t. It appears to be generally accepted that during the period from Palestrina to Rossini the old masters wrote for the lower pitch, and the sin (?) of raising the pitch is to be laid at the door of the stringed and wind instrumentalists, who, finding Miat raising the pitch gave greater liilliancy of tone, gradually raised it v.i'til it reached the recent pitch of the English Philharmonic Society, viz., C 5.40. Admitting this, it must nevertheless be added that there are many mistaken ideas about the effects of musical pitch. Possibly composers wrote their compositions to be mn£ or played in a particular key ">f a particular pitch. If so, this is but vaguely understood, and is •»tterlv ignored by executants and vocalists alike, except in regard to the strain on some voices when singing in the higher twitch. Writers and arrangers of drawingroom songs try to get over this difficulty by publishing their songs in various keys suiF"the register of different singers. But a greater difficulty for drawin<?-room vocalists than this question of ritch, and n »* but imnerfcctly understood, is the difficulty of tuning t'ie v pianoforte and all wo^d and metal wind instruments. Educated musicians are aware that all these are imrerfect instruments, impossible to t"M<? perfectly, because of the acoustical difficulty of sub-dividing the thirteen semi-tones of our musical evstem which the compass of an octave. This neceasitt>+«s a system of temperation, i.e., dividing this thirteenth semi-tone' throiio-h-out the octave, which causes the best^of «"cli instruments to be, what we call,, "out of tune." Vocalists may have ob" <s"r V Pd that the name high note and interval is more easily attacked in one toy *han another, a^id the writer submits the son for this is to be fouu^ in this ur>"fjnal temnerption of the tliirteen semitones in tuninc the -pianoforte, wbie'' "•vises sinfer; "with a «?ood oar" *o shrink from attacking what is thus an im^erfert inform 1. Therefore all vocal music, especially that harmonised in partis, obnjiH sung- unaccompanied by sue?) instr"r"n i«: an instrumental aornmr-animent if inly to op tolerated when the instrumprrtc ""o a Rtnnepd quartette, because the vio lv* and its stringed relatives tire the o: lv '■o- f ect instruments. Some keys certainly °"it certain eomrcitiom better than others: in other words, a composition m.nv sound better when played by an orchestra

in the key of E than it would if played in the key of F., but the question of pitch ha 9 little or nothing to do with this. For instance, at. is well known, greater tonorosity is the result ot placing a composition in a key in which moist of the instruments of the orchestra arc playing "opeu notes," i.e., the wood and luclaJ wind instruments not using keys or valves, and the stringed instruments without stopping; this affects all instruments, with the possible exception of the stringed boxes, such as the pianoforte. It will thus be understood that transposing a composition into a key a semitone higher, viz., fiom E to F, will not necessarily cause it to sound better when flayed by an orchestra. Whi'e making this statement, it i 3 admitted that, possibly, if all the instruments of an orchestra were made to a pitch half a tone" higher than, say. the French (the lowest) pitch, a composition would sound better, but even then, as stated, E would be p ound to be a more sonorous key than F. Even to the ordinary imisical housewife this question of musical pitch is of interest, and often a cause of annoyance, because of the various fitches the different nianoforte makers build their instruments to. but more co because of the various tuning forks used by the peregrinating tuners. This has bsporn? e-wh a nuisance that it would be difficult to find two pianofortes tuned to the same pitch, and it is s-ldom possible to f 'id a drawinsroom pianoforte agreeing in ritch with wird instruments, so that they can be played to- , gether. Pianoforte tuners arc FonWimea careless or incomj^etent, especially in country practice, and household instruments suffer in conscouence. Tuners of pianofortes should be licensed when competent, and this is a subject which the Society of Professional Musicians might well interest themselves in.

A. report rcacliei us CWelJin^-t«ii Pmt) from a well-known authenticated source that on Monday last the passengers for Auckland by the express on the Main Trunk line received a ereat scare when descending the Spiral. It is asserted that the train travelled down the incline at such a rate that the occupants of the carriages were thrown off their seal>>. The maximum speed allowed is 25 miles an hour. The express was about two hours lnte at Raurimu. but it reached Auckland only twenty minutes behind time. From what we have learned, it would seem- to be a matter for official inquriy.