SOCIETY FOR IMPERIAL CULTURE.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18420, 29 June 1925, Page 14

SOCIETY FOR IMPERIAL CULTURE.

On Saturday evening a meeting of the Society for Imperial Culture was held at "To Wharo," Hereford street, vhen Professor Shelley presided over a very largo attendance of members and guests. . The hall was artistically decorated. The lecturer for the evening ivas Mr Lancelot Lewin, -who dealt with "The Music of the Eighteenth Century." Mr Lewin said that modern music began nL?.~2 i B . h ?* mma S of the Seventeenth Century. Palestrina, who perfected the old model music, had died a few years before and the new music" of Peri, Caccini, and Monteyerde was a departure inspired by the Renaissance., Tn it wera the beginnings of modern harmony. Opera, oratorio, and the instrumental forms had to wait for the now idiom, but then developed quickly. Mr Lewin referred to the revolution worked in France by G luck, in the field of tragic opera. Haydn was the founder of Chamber music Mozart worked up Singspeil and turned it into comic opera. He also invented the concerto. ' Handel brought choral ■ music to a high point of perfection. Of late yearß arrested development had given place to renewed activity, which would certainly continue. Tho lecture was illustrated by mußlc. Messrs Worsley,. Biordan and Westwood played a Mozart trio for violin, violoncello and pianoforte. .Mr Geo. March sang Bach's "Heart Ever Faithful" and Haydn's "Spirit's .Song." Mr A. L. Cropp sang Mozart's air, "Qui Sdegno" and Schubert's "Erl King." There were also a few gramophone records of harpsichord music. The vote of thanks was proposed by the Rev. Hubert Jones and seconded by Mr Ernest Empson. Miss Hilda Edgar contributed the ' six paintings for tho evening, watercolours of subjects about Christchurch. Two which were greatly admired were "Armagh Street, Winter," and "Frosty Morning, Cranmer Square." During the evening Professor Shelley announced that pictures by two of the members of the Society,- Miss M. p. Stoddart and Mr Ronald McKenzie,. were accepted and hung at the "New Salon," Paris, this year. The following new members were elected:— Mrs Maiden, Miss Olive Coope'r, Mr Guy Butler, Mrs Grace Butler, Mr F. A. L. Oookson, Mrs Cookson, Miss Muriel Ollivier, Mr J. M. Thomasson, Miss Mavis Baty, Mr S. E. McCarthy, Mrs McCarthy, Miss Meredith Kaye, Miss Millicent Jennings, Mrs Arthur Barrell, Mrs Richard Allen, Mrs John S. Duncan, Mrs John Duncan, Mrs Tom Searell, Mrs M. Ensor, Mrs W. H. Clark.'