Old Musical Days in Taranaki.

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume III, 1 October 1900, Page 40

Old Musical Days in Taranaki.

By D. Saul.

T one time I was a frequent visitor to New Plymouth, and although not a musical performer, had opportunities ofmixingwith musical people; and there were few amateur concerts which I did not attend, and very few musical

people, eitber amateur or professional, with , whom I was not acquainted. Unfortunately, my experiences do not go back to the good old times of such musical lights as Mr. R. Parris and the late Mr. John Newland. No doubt a most entevtaining volume could be written about the music and musicians of those days ; and it is a thousand pities that the "old settlers of that generation are dying out without making any record of their experiences of what is undoubtedly the most interesting period of New Zealand's history.

The parent of the music of these latter days, in New Plymouth, was undoubtedly the late Mrs. S. P. King. Mrs. King gave lessons in music to so many people that one can scarcely encounter a lady who has not lived in New Plymouth for twenty-five yeai's who was not taught by her. Her execution on the piano was brilliant, and she read well at sight, added to which she really loved the great tone poets and all their works. Mrs. King was a native of Belfast, and was a most determined Irish " Plome Ruler." I do not think she ever performed in public, but all lovei's of music who knew her enjoyed listening to her conversation and hearing her play in private ; and although she was of all women the least vain, she was looked

up to as quite an oracle, and in matters of argument her opinion was generally regarded as conclusive. Mrs. King rarely stirred away from her house, and lived much alone,

and yet there was no movement of any importance going on in the world with the details of which she was not familiar.

The first musical conductor I remember encountering in New Plymouth was the late Mr. G. G. Richter. He was an able, though eccentric, musician ; but his passion for musical truth proved his ruin, for I have heard of him refusing to give lessons to so

many would-be singers who (in his opinion) possessed no voices, that he made himself unpopular, and was soon forced to seek his fortune elsewhere.

For several years after Mr. Richter's disappearance from the scene of activity, New Plymouth possessed a strong Choral Society (but they called themselves " Philharmonic "), and musical people were thoroughly united, under the conductorship of Mr. Alfred Drew. Mr. Drew was an able musician, but had not had a great deal of experience in orchestral work, which occasionally led him into committing blunders which tended to impair his popularity. He was an excellent conductor, played the contra-bass fairly well, and when the necessities of the orchestra took that instrument away from him, he made a most praiseworthy attempt to master the oboe. A choral conductor is bound to make enemies ; indeed, at times it appeared to me that he exists for that purpose, and Mr. Drew was no exception to the rule, but his leaving New Plymouth was New Plymouth's loss,

and a very serious loss at that. Mrs. Drew, also, was a great musical acquisition to New Plymouth; as loader of the choir in the

Anglican Church (of which Mr. Drew was organist), and one of the few roliablo solo sopranos in the Philharmonic Society, Mrs.

Drew was most useful. It always appeared to me a pity that Mrs. Drew's voice had not received a thorough training, as in that caso she could not fail to have made a fortune as

a professional

Orchestral affairs had, of course, their ups and downs in New Plymouth as thoy have everywhere else. The arrival of the Wild man family from England, late in 1879, was the occasion of a remarkable revival in instrumental matters. They speedily got together an orchestra of about thirty members, which flourished so long as thoy gave it their support. I remombor woll attending the first instrumental concert given by that orchestra ; they rendered a really excellent programme of music (mostly classical), which must have required several months of hard practice. Now, eighteen years or more afterwards, on looking over a list of the performers, I find they are Bcattered to the four quarters of the compass, and several are dead. Messrs. Wm. Wildman, M. J. Cleary, and W. H. Skeet are dead ; as also is Mr. Shawcross, one of tho

gentlemen who sang on that occasion. Mr. Shawcross sang in excellent taste, and possessed the best cultivated tenor voice I

have heard in New Zealand. When I last heard of them, Mr. T. Wildman was at Whangarei, Mr. Beale at the Thames, Mr. Lyell in Nelson, Mr. Drew in Palmevston North ; Mr. Bennett and Dr. Murray Gibbes went away to Austral ia years ago ; the Trimble brothers have wandered away Heaven knows where ; only a small proportion of the original orchestral society remains rooted to the soil of Taranaki.

A sensational incident occurred on the night of that concert, which had a most nnfortunate effect on musical affairs in New Plymouth for some time afterwards. The concert was played to a large audience, and went off excellently, and about two hours after it was over the theatre, in which it had taken place (the Oddfellows' Hall), was destroyed by fire. There was now no room in New Plymouth suitable for concerts, for the Freemasons' Hall (afterwards the

Salvation Army barracks) was too small, besides being a bad room for sound, and the musical people had to put up with a large auction mart, belonging to Mr. Wm. Courtney, which was, however, an atrociously bad room for sound. The Philharmonic Society performed MacFarren's " Lady of the Lake " in that room, but I cannot remember that they ever attempted to give another performance there. In those " dark days " they were reduced to performing a Christmas concert (the " Creation ") in the Wesleyan Church. I suppose a period of nearly two years must have elapsed between the destruction of the Oddfellows' Hall and the opening of the Alexander Theatre. During that period both chorus and orchestra were several times on the point of going to pieces, but were kept in existence by the energy and characteristic obstinacy of Mr. Drew, who insisted that however dark the aspect of affairs might be, there were good

times coming, when they would have a really good theatre to perform in.

The good times came, ■with the advent of

Mr. Angelo Forrest and the opening of the Alexandra Theatre. Mr. Forrest was a wood conductor, and an educated musician,

his forte being orchestral work ; his choir training and private teaching of singing were excellent, but they sink into in. significance when compared with the work he got out of his instrumentalists. His arrangements of music for orchestra were some of the best I have ever heard ; he arranged a particularly good selection from "Maritana," and some short pieces by Heller and other composers, besides a really excellent original set of waltzes, and many other pieces which I have now forgotten. I must not forget to add that he was a most pronounced Wagnerian. Mr. Forrest opened the Alexandra Theatre with the " Elijah." A number of instrumentalists came from Auckland to assist the orchestra, including Mr. Hemus (violin), Mr. (now Judge)

Edger ('cello), and Mr. Mackonzio (contra bass). This conoort was a great success, and was followed, after proper intervals, by " Maritana," with the assistance of Mr. Hill (tenor), of Wellington, and by Jackson's " Year." Of course Mr. Forrest was much too good a musician for ho small a town as New Plymouth ; ho used up too much of the musical onorgy of the place, and after he left musical affairs appeared to droop and die, in spite of most horoic efforts made by Mr. Drew and others to restore things to their old footing. But, though a most painstaking and conscientious conductor, Mr Drew could not infuse any fresh energy into the people, and it was noticed by many observers that after Mr. Forrest's departure, the performances of both instrumentalists anil vocalists deteriorated

rapidly. It appeared as though Mr. Forrest had tuned them up to too high a pitch, from which they had run down, and that with-

out him to get them into tune again, all that the musical talent of the place could produce was hideous discords. Mr. Drew abandoned the attempt in 1884, when the burden was taken up by Mr. George Garry, of Napier, and Mr. Garry — after seeing the old Philarmonic Society utterly wreck its finances, aud finally disappear, and finding his plans thwarted at every turn, not by illwill, and not by incompetence, but by sheer weariness after the strain produced by Mr. Forrest's genius — devoted his attention to the organisation of a military band, which was a brilliant success. It is now many years since my regular visits to .New Plymouth ceased, and my acquaintance with Mr. Garry was so slight that he is not likely to remember me, but 1 remember very distinctly the struggle he underwent to maintain the position to which his abilities undoubtedly entitled him.

Outside New Plymouth I must mention Mr. Pinches, who for some years fought the battle of music in Hawera, and of Mr. R. C. Tenant, who laboured most successfully in Patea. So far as Taranaki is concerned theso are both people of the past, and both those towns are fortunate if their successors are only half as self-sacrificing and enthusiastic. I was once in Patea when the New Plymouth orchestra came there and gave a concert. At that time an expedition of the kind was an undertaking of some magnitude, for after a tedious railway journey from New Plymouth to Hawera the party had to be conveyed from the latter town to Patea by coach. They rendered an excellent programme under Mr. Drew's baton, but unfortunately the evening was wet and stormy, consequently they had not anything like the audience they would have had if the weather had been fine. At that time Patea possessed the best concert room on the West Coast. I could not help smiling at the intense energy the members of the orchestra put into all their performances, under such

love of thoroughness the pieces could not help going off well. But the energy of all the performers put together was nothing compared with the enthusiasm of Mr. Temiant, who made a capital speech just before the concert closed, when proposing a vote of thanks, and at the supper which took place afterwards to hear Mr Tennarit singing " William Rufus " (I cannot recollect ever hearing him sing any other song in public, but he always sang that one well) was a treat. Patea used to be a very musical place, but besides Mr. Tennant, the only musical notoriety with whom I was acquainted there was Mr. Samuel Taplin, who possessed a very fine and mellow bass voice. There were several pioneers of musical ffistheticism in New Plymouth without whose names this article would be incomplete : Miss Humphries, Miss Govett, Mrs. G. F. Robinson, Mrs. Knight, Mr. T. Humphries (it is impossible to speak too highly of the musical abilities of the Humphries family, or of the services they rendered to the old Philharmonic Society), Mr. F. L. Webster, Mr. J. 0. George, Mr. Tribe and Mr. Holdsworth. These were for years the mainstay of the chorus, and without them but few good solos could have been performed. The amount of hard work they put into all the practices and concerts was creditable to their love of music, and should be an example to their successors.

The days of those old concerts — when the Philharmonic Society (iejoicing in the strength of the above-mentioned vocalists, and of others whose names I have forgotten) performed music which nobody in Taranaki has now the courage to look at, much less produce in public — are over ; and it behoves the present generation, while avoiding the mistakes, to emulate the energy and enthusiasm of their predecessors, whose names must — for many years — be associated with all that is best in music in Taranaki.