Listen To Your Music

Cue (NZERS), Issue 9, 15 October 1944, Page 20

Listen To Your Music

INTELLIGENT listening as the primary essential for appreciation of good music develops further abilities. Love for music cannot be rammed down anybody’s throat. The extent of the listener’s appreciation depends upon himself

on k the development of his discrimination and perception through careful listening. ■ .

By

Incidentally . this has an important bearing on the musical education of children, which might profitably be brought to the notice of future parents. Little Egbert, who is herded unwillingly to the piano and told to get on with his practice—or elsecannot be expected to develop a fervent enthusiasm for music or anything pertaining to it. Music should be made alive and intriguing to him. Lessons and practice . should be events to which he looks forward. Music .is the freest of the arts. When it becomes a bore its charm is entirely destroyed. As the discrimination of the listener increases, he will notice more distinction between types of music than the one between contrapuntal and chordal music. He may also notice that the art of music has been one of steady growth and development. It may be of interest to him, and increase his appreciation of the music of different periods and composers, if he knows something of this growth of * music. Music probably started as the rhythmic thumping of some caveman on a hollow log or other resounding object, accompanied perhaps by a gibberish chanting: This, by the way, would seem to establish a case for regarding much of the banshee cacophony that today is termed music as being merely atavistic. - Many of the ancient civilisations

—the Chinese, the Indians and the" Greeks —were quite musically literate. The Greeks had a method of writing their music, and . they also developed a system of scales: called modes. There was no harmony. All music was sung in unison. Everybody sang the same tune together, much the same as church congregations sing today. What instruments existed were primitive and. used mainly as an accompaniment, to the singing. Even up to the present, no instrument has been evolved which surpasses the interpretativequalities of the human voice, Beethoven, in his 9th Symphony, appreciated this, and, having, plumbed the possibilities of the orchestra, .incorporated a choir into the final tremendous movement. ' '

.For many centuries after Christ, music was of the type known as plainsong. Much of it still exists, especially in church music, and the listener will notice immediately its distinctive tonality or sound. The scales used differ from present scales and are termed modes. If we sing from doh, ray, me#up ; to doh, we have our present major' scale. If, however, we' start on: ray and sing up to ray an octave higher, we get an entirely different progression of notes. These various modes then, started on the different notes of the scale, and it is the different progression of notes that gives plainsong its distinctive tonality. The modes are now returning tofavour. Many composers are using them, combined with some measure of modern technique. Many beautiful results areobtained with the use of modes, and any opportunity of hearing, modal music should not be lost. About 900 AD an elementary form of harmony , came into being. The tune would be sung at the top by sopranos and trebles. Deeper voices sang five notes lower. The result was ungainly, but harmonic sense gradually improved.. Later the fifths were eliminated and the tune was accompanied, by other parts in the sixths and. thirds. That is to say other voices sang at intervals of six and threenotes from the tune.

Gradually counterpoint, with its interwoven melodies, came into its own? It was raised to its highest level by Bach. Music made great strides during the Renaissance, especially in England. It is recorded that Henry VIII himself possessed 48 virginals—an early type of piano. Apparently, he was a wholesaler in music, as in other activities.

After Bach, music became mostly of the chordal typeone tune accompanied by chords. The harmonic . possibilities. of music were further enlarged by the use of chromatic harmony, containing chords foreign to the key in which the piece was- written. This type of harmony was developed mostly by the Romantic composers — Schubert; Schumann, Mendelssohn and others. Music became much richer and more colourful in its tonality. Serious music today is in the process of seeking new avenues of expression. Some composers,

including the Finnish composer Sibelius, are proceeding along more dr less conventional lines. Many readers have no doubt heard and enjoyed the /Valse Trieste and Finlandia of Sibelius. Other composers are radically altering the technical aspect of music, e.g., by using new forms of scales 'or micro-tones. A microtone is an interval smaller than a semi-tone or half-tone, which is the difference in sound between a white note and the black-.note next to it on the piano. This is not a new device. It was used, centuries ago by many Oriental races, and even occurred in early Maori music. No doubt many readers have at some time or another heard various compositions of such modern • composers .as Stravinsky or Kodaly. Their music may, be a little difficult to understand' at first but the ear soon becomes used to the tonality a . > - ' In this respect the listener should not always listen solely to the music he likes. Occasionally, at least,, he should hear out a work he dislikes .and try to discover just why he dislikes it—whether it is because of weakness or bad taste in the .music (misuse of instruments) or because of his own lack 1 of appreciation. He can do nothing about the former, but the improvement of the latter rests with himself. . "