MUSIC NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1504, 20 February 1919, Page 29

MUSIC NOTES.

(By

"G" String.)

I have to acknowledge a parcel of songs from Messrs. Chappel and Co., the well-known publishers, of London, Melbourne and New York. “When the Dream is There” is a fine composition by Guy D’Hardelot. Its tunefulness and slow valse rhythm should make it acceptable to the average vocalist. Baritones ought to hail with glee Michael Mulliner’s setting of Rudyard Kipling’s “A Smuggler’s Song” from “ Puck of Pook’s Hill.” By the Waters of Minnetouka” is a splendid example of modern song writing. “The Likes of They” is a product of the war, and is dedicated to Havelock Wilson and the Sailors and Firemen’s Union. It crystallises in strong and dignified rhythms the determination of the British sailor and fireman to boycott the Germans for their most sinister deeds during the war. “Buttery” is one of Haydn Wood’s best compositions, and is worth the attention of the well-trained singer. “Star of My Life,” by Lao Sillsu, and “Out of Deep Waters,” by Ethel Barnes, are

both high-class ballads. “Castles in Spain” and “Wood Nymphs” are both valse melodies that .should be agreeably appreciated in the dance room during the coming winter months.

In a recent lecture on “Musical Education” at the Oxford Union Society’s Hall, Sir Henry Hadow claimed that music should be more a part of the corporate life of the school. “In certain quarters,” he said, “there had been much advance in this respect lately with great profit to music as a whole. There should be daily classes of singing for a few minutes; children should begin with music of transparent structure, broad melody and effective rhythm. Good music was not at all necessarily synonymous with serious music; there was plenty of room in all art for the best in every genre, both grave and gay, but none for the second rate, and to suppose that the best music was too gloomy for young people was a pure misunderstanding. The school library should be vgell supplied with books on musical history, biography and aesthetics. By all these means we should open up new horizons of artistic delight, and give new opportunities of intellectual and emotional training crowned by a system of musical philosophy by which the whole world would become organic. The intellectual element was vital; one of the essential distinctions between good and bad music was that the latter did not mean anything; if we did not try to understand music it would sound more or less like melliflous nonsense verses.”