MUSIC IN A NEW IDEA IN

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 3, Issue 2, 1 August 1924, Page 25

MUSIC IN A NEW IDEA IN

AUCKLAND ACTIVE AT LAST ¥T OW many musical competition so- * * eieties are there in New Zealand? A hasty mental review has hitherto connected such organisations with, the three centres: Dunedin, Christchurch, and Wellington, and with the smaller towns of Timaru, Nelson, Palmerston North, Masterton, Hastings, Napier, Cambridge, Hamilton, Wanganui, New Plymouth, Gisborne and Whangarei. What about Auckland? True, there was a society of this description in Auckland once, but it died a natural death, poor thing. Now, Auckland likes to believe that she is the most progressive city in the two Islands (notwithstanding that Wellington quietly smiles in her security as the Capital), and at last the Northern City has awakened from her inertia, in an effort to maintain her boasted reputation after all. A NEW KIND OP COMPETITION Auckland is going to have a competiton next month that is unique in the annals of New Zealand, and which it is to be hoped will prove such a success that it will serve as an example that others will follow. The idea certainly seems good. It has emanated from the United States and Canada, where there are established Bureaus for the Advancement of Music. (Of the latter fact, musical New Zealand, please take note.) The object is purely educational, and therefore has The Mirror’s wholehearted support. Headers may remember an article in -our May number dealing with music in Auckland, in which this Music Memory Contest idea was briefly outlined. The project is now an actuality, and young and old will soon be busily engaged in learning to recognise about a hundred pieces of the more popular type of classical music that are published as the competition list. These will be played and sung everywhere, in the homes and in the city, on all possible occasions, so that even the uninterested will absorb good music, in spite of themselves, if they attend picture palaces and public places where there is music. Special efforts are being made to give school children opportunities of hearing the selected pieces, for it is in them especially that it is hoped to create a desire for good mu si:. WHY THE IDEA IS GOOD This type of contest appeals as being further reaching than the usual brand of solo competition. We cannot all be performers, but we can help to make an appreciative audience for those who want to (and can) perform, not to mention those distant, but essential, individuals who compose. The most commendable feature of the contest is that competitors at the final concert in the Town Hall must write a few words in appreciation of each item. As it is to be expected that several people will be able to write the programme correctly, the decision of the judge will probably be given to those who show the most intelligent appreciation of the compositions played. The educational value of the contest is obvious. During the two months’ period of preparation, the candidate, in order to write about a selected programme of a few musical compositions, must learn all that he can about each of a hundred pieces. (There may be fewer on the list, I have not counted them.) Increased general musical knowledge is, of course, the result knowledge, not only of the compositions, but also of the effect of different musical instruments. Constantly hearing the same music rendered by different mediums of sound will widen the musical outlook of one to whom a tune is merely a tune, a

MYRA B. STONE (St. Clair, Dunedin), 10 years of age, winner of Trinity College Junior Scholarship (practical) for New Zealand, gaining 91 marks out of possible 100. The preceding year she also headed the list for the Preparatory (practical) Examination, gaining 90 marks out of possible 100. She is a pupil of Miss S. Parker. plain, flat thing, without depth. Having heard organ, orchestra, band, violin, pianoforte, and vocal performances, he ought to realise how various types of tone alter the colour of a composition. PRODUCTION OR APPRECIATION? Should we aim to produce mediocre performers or listeners who really appreciate