MUSIC NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1393, 4 January 1917, Page 36

MUSIC NOTES.

(By

“G” String.)

Mr. Paul A. Reubens, the wellknown writer and composer of musical comedies, is seriously ill with lung trouble, and will not be able to do any work for some months. Music was the late Sir Arthur Sullivan’s play. His father was a bandmaster, and encouraged the boy to try all the wind instruments he could fit his little mouth to. He never forced the boy to an unwelcome task, and so at eight years old he could play every wind instrument in his father’s band. Later, when he went to school he composed marches and songs for his playmates, who organised a class band. He grew up among boys who were lovers of music in their boyish ways; he sang in choirs, and was given ample opportunities to hear all the great singers and musicians that came his way. Jenny Lind made such a deep impression on his growing soul that, after hearing her sing, he sat on the doorstep of his home, living the whole concert programme over again and doubtless wishing it might in some way be preserved for all time. Speaking of the modest bearing of the great violinist Joachim, while playing great violin works in public, a London critic once wrote: —“One great result attending Herr Joachim’s professional visit to London is that it yields both professors and amateurs opportunity after opportunity of studying his manner of playing the works of the giants of music. How Herr Joachim executes these compositions —how differently from the self-styled ‘virtuosi,’ how purely, how modestly, how wholely forgetful of himself in the text he considers it an honour to be allowed to interpret to the crowd, wc need scarcely remind our readers. Not a single eccentricity of carriage or demeanour, not a moment of egotistical display to remind his hearers that, although Beethoven is being played, it is Joachim who is playing, ever escapes this truly admirable and (if words might be allowed to bear their legitimate signification) most accomplished of virtuosi.”