MUSICAL EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12747, 19 April 1909, Page 7

MUSICAL EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

By C. A. YOUNG.

111.

A 6 a consequence of the existing low level of musical education in the Dominion, the public are not able to discriminate when they hear good, bad, or indifferent music. Comic opera, and a general low standard of meretricious music, amuses while it vitiates. The general public being uneducated cannot appreciate a higher standard of musical composition. and technique, and so we see the amazing spectacle of an audience partly desiring to get the most for their money, but greatly desiring to give proof of their high critical appreciation, noisily applauding each and every item of a programme. That a little knowledge is a dangerous thing is more applicable to music than to ohe other arts. Everybody considers themselves capable of criticising music, and to a etrtain extent they are.- Most of tw exjjerience pleasure when listening to.mueic played in tune and time; our emotion^ are moved by lively and gay n>usic, and are sympathetic when a sweet or sad tune, or a sensuous valse floats on the air. When we hear the words of a song or hymn being sung, its music impresses the meaning conveyed, and if it be a good hymn or song the oftener we hear it the more t>ie music intensifies the meaning of the words.

But all this does not enable us to understand the- art by which the artist is thus able to touch our feelings. We feel — and herein lies the great superiority of music to her sister arts — but we cannot express in words what we feel ; unless we are educated in the science of music. With an ignorance appalling people will venture to criticize music who would stare in dumb astonishment at a painting or a piece of sculpture; as, being ignorant of technique, of the inspiration w,Kich suggests, of proportion, form, colour, they are at a loss for words; while poetry, twin sister of music, is a mere inharmonious senseless jangle of words when they attempt to express verse in articulate sounds.

Nor are they entirely to blame for this ctate of things. Advance agents advertise their companies in the most exaggerated and fallacious language. Second and third-rate singers who have attracted some local attention in their home neighbourhood in America or Australia are advertised as great artists, and even English artists, who have their value and recognised positions in the London musical profession, are advertised here in a style that must make them blush when they see the advertisements. One visitor is styled the greatest oratorio contralto singer in the world, and fills the bill by flinging us a few royalty fee drawingroom songs, another, on flaming posters, is styled the prima donna of three or (was it) four Continents.

Reporters, unable themselves to discriminate, eulogise the performance of a perci grinating bra«s band, the singing or playing of a star, wandering minstral, a promising font disappointing local celebrity, or an indifferent comic opera enmpany in similar high falutin terms. Theee gentlemen are indefatigable in pereuadiog a credulous public they possess a wealth nf ima»ii ation.and coiibidcraole iu>wcrs of invention, and ar3 to be found in our prcvincial capTtal cities discovering what they call promising stars. In the northern capital they more than once publicly stated a rccalist onga^ed in a local effort bad been a- prima donna of the Royal Kalian Opera, Covent harden London. Imagination could not well soar to greater heights than that. These they "puff" into notoriety, and after some successful local effort the poor dupe wakes to find herself (for these loial stars are mostly feminine^ fairous, and is persuaded to adventure her whole futurs life upon the sea of an inflatsd vanity. This reoults in a benefit concert being tendered by well-meaning, but mistaken friends as a "sevd-off", a visit to Europe for that musical training which common-sense admits is not to be obtaired 'n the colony, and a reputation which, lika a rocket, ascends in a brilliant roruacation of light, and descends like the stick into darkness and obscurity. And our musical criiics, to whom the public ought to be able to look for light and leading, and who also are responsible for much misapplied effort and consequent disappointment, what must' be said of them? Varying in proficiency musical critical opinion occupies the unenviable position of trying to please everybody. Doubtless kindly considerations induce the musical critic to write encouragingly of young aspirants to fame (although sometimes it were kinder these were told the truth, than that continued effort should result in disappointment and regret) ; and talented artistes who come to vn* fa 1 * over land and eea to educate and delight us should be written of in laudatory and respectful terms. But other and more sordid considerations obtrude, newspapers must be run on strictly commercial principles, and space cannot be wasted on philanthrophy, or the desire to advance art. Advance agents require something spicy for their money, individual members of a company, peregrinatory or local, are clamorous for public — or rather the critics' — notice ; with the result that the public suffers and tne musical standard of appreciation debased.

A musical criticism, generally speaking, consists of a jangle of musical terms, meaningless to the general public, exaggerating and conveying a fallacious idea of a public performance. Any musical tyro could cull such a sweet smelling, but nauseating, bouquet of mueical etpreeaiont from files of the Australian newspapers, or from a dictionary of musical terms. Few musical criticisms appearing in the newspapers of the Dominion emanate from the pen 3of musicians whose judgment has been matured by ripe experience and travel m the musical centres of the world beyond the seas, and thus those who at tonrot to educate and elevate musical pubho opinion Jack a standard of comparison to steady and guide them in their criticisms. The few wandering stars which have of recen.t years visited our Southern Hemisphere should not of themselves con stitute a competent critic's education. The critical sense is the educated sense, such education means hard study of the science of music, sever* and long "hours" of practice, passing one's daily life in a musical atmosphere, with the opportunity of jwociating with and hearing and comparing the greater; singers and players as they come and go through the years. Thcso. with the musical stmperamcnt to appreciate and assimilate what one ser* and hears, place the critic in the position to educate, elevate, and lead publn opinion, and this is the function of the musical critic. •

Surely that section of the public which 'ovce mufcic as an art, and which desire*? that their children should be educated as •yell as amused when they attend a public concert or other musical entertainment are entitled to greater consideration than receive from tho musical critics for the press. Discriminating criticism is what is required, not fulsome flattery; and criticism to be healthy should be iust Viwieal opinion in New Zealand is surely more robust than to desire to be fed upon nauseating and enervating "piffle" supplied by unscrupulous advance agents, and

uneducated musical reporters and critics.

These articles were written pro bono publico, no offence is intended, and if their tone or styles has given offence to any readers, the writer can only hop© the end may be found to justify the means, and that pardon may be extended, when it is stated the object was to provoke controversy, so that the expression of opposite opinions through the medium of the press might clear the issue, and enable the public to arrive at a. coaohis.on j\s to whether or not the time ha.s arrived for a supervising authority over our r,i\ovut system of musical education.