HYDE PARK BELLS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20085, 14 November 1930, Page 5

HYDE PARK BELLS.

ROYAL INTEREST.

miss gladys: ABILITY. (FftOll OUR OWN COSafiSPOHOBiIT.) LONDON, October 3, The Wellington Carillon in Hyde I'ark is about to be dismantled and the bells shipped away, whether immediately to New Zealand or first to Buenos Aires does not seem, to been determined., The performances on Saturday and Sunday.- attracted - great crowds, though those on Sunday had to shelter beneath umbrellas. , . ■ Miss Gladys Watkins was the camlonneuse on each occasion. The accompanying items compiled bv the "Daily Sketch" will be of interest to New Zealand readers: . • . * It is an open secret that the King and Queen 011 more than one occasion have stopped their car on drives through London to listen to the bell music. The Duke of Connaught ; paid, several visits of inspection to. the tower itself.. ; Many noted carillonneurs ; > haveplayed on the bells. The recitals have been by Mr Clifford. Ball, engaged by the' courtesy of JNlessrs Cadbury and Co;, in whose garden, village at Bonrnville he is the neur. Mr W. E. Jordan, town earn- , lonneur, of Loughborough, was another. Captain Victor Van Gevseghem. a Belgian Aririv officer, one of the professors at the Ma.hnes School of Carillonoeurs. came over. Miss Nora Johnston, a sister of the managin<r director- of Gillett and Johnston, played, and there have been recitals by Miss Gladvs Watkins, the young New Zealander who; went to Maltnes made record progress at: ;the school, took a diploma in honours ni the shortest time ever accomplished, and is to be the regular carillonneuse at Wellington. • , , "Recitals which have left outstanding, memories include one on Burns P of Scottish airs; others on Anzac ana Empire Days ; one was arranged specially for children, and another for W 'Now it is all save Stories, of evenings filled witb flood, lighted crowds and floating melodies. Gramophone Records. Last Monday Miss Watkins spent the whole of the afternoon ui Jiyde Park trying out popular airs, and two records were taken m.the open air of four selected tunes. These will be on cole shortly. Part of the proceeds from overseas sales will be New Zealand chanties, and sales in this country to a by the "Daily Sketch" and &un da fli^ rapl \Vatkins is referreci . to by i Bo fwth;ir w th ; ir i G or l is no* feminine for since mastered the individual difficulties of this particular instrument. The SingtoS Tower. A charming appreciation of tbe beU music in Hyde Park appears in The Times" "from a correspondent. London (says the writer), is mach indebted to the city far down in the Southern Seas for the generous loaa of it Manv thousands of Londoners have learned to appreciate the powers 01 interpretation of the lou, which is so vastly different from

the "aerial, barielrorsans,". to use th* . late Wooding phrase, which grind out • some tune that one® wa» beautiful; with the lifeless /precision of a conscientious governess killing Cho-. pin on a worn -out. .piano, AVTien ; the was first iffitalled in flydf Park, moigt those -who cameto listen, assembled round its temporary tower. Afterwards the enthusiasts learned. jtfaiat bell-music is- most, effective _when xt comes from, a- distance, majestically yet mysteriously,"when the significant harmony of the piece played emerges clearly from the shimmering faintly-colour- • ed cloud of harmonics. There nofching more romantic,- as they, know ur the Netherlands, than, far-away carillon music ; especially when so .remote that it seems little more than painted, and patterned silence, 'moosdig^^macl o audible, a whispered message. from behind the blue hills of time; ~n v -} London has learned "that the great English bell ,at . Loughborough and Croydon tuned to equal temperament, each bell in tune with itself and with Ate companions, the like of which be produced of old even by. -;Jrranz Hemony, called, " the founders." In this industrial >axtywe do indeed lead the' world, eroi-, tn® land where the. kevboard cartuon. was invented and. ia .most- securely ■atAwme, seeing that it is like (as. De likened it) to a 'green and jnoMpiuess sea, where the steeples, represent masts of ships for ever fat - anchor- - su»" the ■ '"pewy parts of this island the keyboard cariDon can never Be acclimatised, but it is suited both to^ the .w>n- . figuration and to the genitis loci'... of the Fen Country > (our-English- HoUand)and the lesser expanses 'of hill-Jess country. The still, calm coojatiysides of Belgium and 1 Holland- impart a peonliar. sentiment' that _is neitner^glaflßßS ß nor sadnes nor ennui, but a subtle mi** ture of all three, and that is thevery sentiment of "all carillon-njiiGic. However joyous the tane, many of tbe-X/on-don listeners in Hyde Park have noted there is a strange, sweet .melancholy added when it is played on bells. The late Wooding Starmer, "in conversation with the writer, insisted that this was a factor which must always be considered by the composers of music for the carillon. ' ■ v Perhaps some day "London may.Jiave. her own carillon installed in its lofty tower (twice as high as that--which is to be removed, so that -All: -Jjobdon can listen) in Hvde Park,- and than there would be more, inducement. ,foryoung English composers • to:. music for the most majestic of-''nil instruments..