HAWERA

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 46, 17 November 1904, Page 27

HAWERA

(From an occasional correspondent.) Having referred in my notes of last week t 0 the good worK done in the convent schools of Taranaki by the de\oted nuns, 1 was anxious, did space allow me to make a few remarks upon the benefits conferred upon the towns of the province by ex-pupils of the convent sciiools. It is now fifteen years since I first assisted at a conceit given in Wellington by the pupils of Miss MlLciOi. A few itcm,s only of the evening's) programme had been gone through when the audience understood that vocal music in the city had received a new life and that lovers of music could no longer be satisfied with the old conditions. I remember, too, the dismay a few years later in the Empire City when it was announced that the great teacher had ' left the world ' and become a Sister of Mercy under the name of Sister Agnes in the local convent. Expressions of the deepest regie I were heard on all sides : What a loss to the local world of music ! who will now fill her place ! what a shame that the Church should silence such a \oice and make fruitless such talents in the cloister ! But those in the city who knew the spirit of the music-breathing Church, and who had heard the echoes of the holy songs that had often stolen out upon the world from cloistral walls, felt that the city and the Colony would not be losers but gainers by the change. And the event has fully borne them out. There are scattered all over the North Island of New Zealand today scores of young ladies who were trained by Sister Agnes in the Wellington convent and who occupy the fust places in the front rank of Colonial singers, and who are in theiT several localities a light and a leading to the lo\ers of what is highest and best 'in the isublime art of music. Their own training has been such that they in their turn have become efficient teacheirs, and the examiners' from Trinity College and the Royal Academy have nought but praise for their methods and their Success. So that when it is announced that there is to be a concert by the pupils of a teacher, who was herself a pupil ot Sister Agnes, rs a foregone conclusion, that a gieat treat is in stoic. Being in llawera on the evening of the annual concert of Miss Reilly s pupils, I became one of the audience, and needless to say I came away as edified as I was delighted. In addition to her own pupils, who, one would be inclined to' think, were too numerous for one teacher, Miss Reilly was as-sisted by four other young ladies who were fellow-pupils with her at Ihe Wellington convent. I do not intend to criticise the programme. This has been already done very ably and \ cry favorably by the local paper, and not many readers ot the ' Tablet ' would be interested in the details of a concert local to llawera. But I would like to say that I have rarely heard choruses with the voicesi so beautifully balanced and with the alternations of light and shade so natural and so perfect. And I do want to say that at this conrert I heard for the first time in many years sweet airs accompanying sweet and edifying words. It is on this account I thought of contributing these few notes that by means of them I mi^ht emphasise for the benefit of your. many young musical readeis the need of good songs for good singers. Immortal music should be ever mated with immortal verse, and we are never really charmed except when ihus linked in sweetness they come to us on the voices of sweet singers. 'Ihis happy blending of sweet music, sweet songs, and sweet singers we noticed at the concert in question. Would lhat we experienced more of it on our platforms. And here it seems to me is a work ready waiting for our young convent-trained singers, a work which is nothing less than the salvation in this Colony of the musical art from the degradation that threatens to overwhelm it. All high art is dragged down at the present day to be either the servant of sensuality or the occasion o! money-making. What a hideous nightmare is the art we 1 find in those works of fiction so popular among us, while the ambition of modern verse is to tickle the fancy at the expense of true poetry. The popular music writers, in blissful ignorance of the simplicity of genius, make it their study to keep our attention by perpetual novelties and sensational surprises, while the impr.essarios who cater for the public amusement bring in vie comic element, with as many immoral innuendoes a 9 can be crowded into it, to rule the stage with an iron hand. It seems to be an accepted fact in New Zealand that no one can compete with a comic singer, and when that comic singer is not immoral, he is sure to be burlesquing everything the most sacred. Even death itself is not free from hie profanity. I have been witness of such a burlesque more than once, and I have heard both pit and circle explode in loud laughter and applause. And when the wretched fellow had left

the stage, io, was hut to &ive place to some emptyheaded Miss arrived to assault us with some mawkish sentimental ditty, having neither wit nor wisdom to recommend it. Now, it is against all this that our young conventtrained singers must set themselves, and set themselves in the name and for the sake of God. Music is too divine to be sacrificed. Something must be done to save it, and under present conditions it can be saved only by those who have a dash of heroism. Where can we turn for the heroism if not to our convent giils ? Wo have a right to exhort them to go straight against the false etiquette that .rules or threatens > ho rule this Colony. They at least must naver try to come down to the level of their audience. Their first object must never be to please. '1 hey are teachers of holiness, as Bufl'almaco said to the old' artists of Sienna, and their object must be to instruct, to edify, to improve, for this, said he, is the only aim worthy of any art that is heaven-born. ' I congratulate you, sir, 1 said an Irish nobleman to Handel after hearing the ' Messiah,' ' you have given us a great entertainment.' ' I am, sorry to hear it,' was the reply ; ' I meant to improve, not to entertain.' The young Catholic singers of New Zealand, thanks to their training, are in a position to lead the fashion. If they do so they will work for God ; if not they are pulling down where He would build, and they will be turning to bad account the talent received from Him. Let our young Catholic singers not be afraid to turn their backs upon son^s devoid of true sentiment ; let others sing the ditties and the mawkish sentimentalities. Let them not be afraid to sing in public and in private the great songs of the great Catholic masters, and so far from outraging fine feelings, they will be charmed to discover that they are touching depths of feeling in the hearts of those who were thought to rejoice only in vulgar slang or in base innuendo. They will feel that they are giving these an inkling of better things, and that they are thus for their own welfare putting out to interest the talent for which God will one day demand a strict return. Above all things let our young Catholic teachers of singing remember what they themselves were taught at the convent, viz., that the whole heavens are not wide enough to mark the distinction between a singer and a mere vocalist, that while technical talent and a certain purity of tone are sufficient to form that mechanical medium or walking pianola that is called a vocalist, the true singer must be as strong in intellectual attainments and in the qualities and dispositions of the heart as in the vocal organs Artificial expressiveness may be attained by , clever imitation, or as the result of skilful coaching, but that charm, which may be felt but not described, and which makes the true singer, comes from a mind well cultivated and from a heart glowing with thf love of God Theiefore the sweetest and most versatile soprano that ever toured these solonies sought inspiration evening after evening at the Tabernacle door before entering the conceit room, theretore the greatest, baritone in Europe sang only on the days he had received Holy Communion, therefore Handel wrote his divine songs with one hand on the crucifix mi his eyes filled with tears", and therefore your own teacher made it a first condition that her pupils should assist at Mass morning after morning and should be remarkable for their frequent ami fervent reception of the Holy Sacraments. It is only heart that can touch heart, and the heart never sings so truly as when it glows with the love of Him Whose name is the veiy soul of song. This seems sermonising, but it is meant for those who have come from convent schools, and n is wiitto-u by one who is a great admirer of, because he knows the value of, convent training.