MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1378, 2 March 1912, Page 9

MUSIC.

(Br Treble Clef.) Choral Reciprocity. A correspondent ("B Sharp") writes:— "I supposo that llr. Ilenry Brett's idea of exchanging Choral Society visits between the two Wellington bodies and joining together in an occasional festival is ft good one. From the reports I gather that the proposition, as it at present stands, is for the societies concerned to give separate performances and amalgamate in a performance of one of the "old familiars." It is cu attractive venture for the members of the societies concerned, and would doubtless mean a jolly and highly-sociable jaunt, but, from the public point of view, has it so much to commend it to lovers of choral music apart from the novelty of the scheme? This, I think, should bo the first consideration. Does it matter very much to tho Auckland public if a hundred.choristers from Wellington sing "Until," or if a similar number from their own city essay tho work, and, frankly, would (here be any groat musical virtue in the Choral Society, if Auckland, being augmented by 50 fir 73 voices from Wellington in a performance of "The Messiah" or "Elijah"? While I do not wish to dampen the enthusiasm of those concerned, the proposition would havo stood considerable discussion on tho part of the local Choral Society at its recent annu.il meeting, only the notion was new to nearly everyone present.

What I would prefer to see would bo a big musical festival with a chorus of not less than ,500 voices, selected from all the choral societies in Auckland and Wellington, given in one of the two cities first, and repeated in the other."

Caruso's Discoverer. Eilouardo Missia.no, baritone at the Metropolitan Opera House (New York), who died suddenly recently of heart disease, was the man who discovered Caruso. "When I was 18 years old, and living in Naples," said Mr. Caruso to a "New York Times" reporter, "I went to a certain bath every day, where I met Missiano, who was at that time a member of a wealthy family, and never had sung in public. He had a good baritone voice, but he sang only for his own amusement. I used to sing about the bath, and one day ho remarked that I had an unusual voice, and said that ho would tako me to his teacher, which he did. This teacher was a cprtain Guglielmo Vergino, mid when I first went to him he said that ho didn't think he could do much with my voice. Missiano, however, took me away, and taught me to sing an air from 'Cavalleria Rusticana.' Then Vergino accepted me, and taught me to sing. .. "Missiano became, my great friend. .When I returned to Italy a few years ago I found that he had lost his money. He asked me to help him, and I got him a place at the Metropolitan Opera House. He has been here ever since. He was more than a brother to me—one of my closest friends;"

Some Elgar Opinions. Mr. Edward Elgar expressed some interesting views to a London "Daily Telegraph" interviewer the other day concerning the teaching of music. Par too much stress is laid nowadays upon technique qua technique, thinks Elgar. Of course, you must teach a child to write; teach him syntax, prosody, and all the rest of it, and ho may write a good business letter, but not necessarily pcetry. And so with musicians—the idea, tho main thing, must come first and the mode of expression grow with it. The fine art of the teacher is to guide the elementary power of selection of both idea and the expression of it. Elgar says, with justifiable pride, that his own "teachers" were the authors of the great books he road (and his reading, to judge by his library and his conversation, is immensely largo and wide), in ordor to "find out" for himself, to develop his own power ot selection; and he points to tho fact that he was not told in his youthful days to prefer Mozart to Gosscc, but'learned for himself and by himself where lay the truth, and why. Teachers do not leave enough to the pupils; they are too doctrinaire, and, as it were, too definite. As to the money to be made by the individual composer out of his awn music, Elgar points out that there is an enormous misunderstanding on the point. He calculates that there are net many mere than 100 first-rate symphony orchestras exict-iii" v-liicli -liav" their own important musical library. Now, if each of these purciKises this full score and parts of a new symphony it will be. roughly, tho maximum. On the other hand, if a novelist sells 2000 copies of a book, it is put down as a failure. Did ever a nicdcrn musician sell 2000 full scores? To emphasise his point that it is only from pianoforte or violin music, that the composer can make n living (there was no reference in the. conversation to balladmakers), Elgar cited examples from his own experience. When he visited Turin in November to conduct a concert he found a superb orchestra of 125, who for years had had his "Enigma" Variations in their repertory, and had played the work on tour under Toscnnini as a show piece. Now Elgnr stated that in not one year since the Variations came into being (IS'J'J) have his fees from their performance amounted to a sum sufficient to pay the cost of the MSS. paper on which they wero originally written. Yet the Variations are played hundreds of times each year in Europe and America. Out of the multitude of these performances last year Elgar gathered Ids. into his own exchequer. The case of "Gerontius" is almost worse, for the composer's average yearly income from its performance is 'about, and not mere than, .£25! "This is not the fault of tho publishers, but of the public and the musical societies, who will play any music that is 'frcb.' " "Amateur actors in the country will readily pay XI Is. for the right to play some farce, but not one penny piece can be extracted for tho musical composer, whose, work is rejected if his performing right is insisted on—if, indeed, it exists.' Sir Edward Elgar is at present engaged upon a setting of the "Ode," with which the late Arthur Shnughness..- opened his beautiful little volume of poems entitled "Music and Moonlight." This, set for contralto solo (the last verse), chorus, and orchestra, will no doubt be first heard in the course of the present year nt one or other of the provincial festivals, Birmingham, or Hereford, for eiamplo.