MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2618, 13 November 1915, Page 12

MUSIC.

fßi Ibebm Cuf.l Orchestral Concert. Orchestral concerts are few and fax between in Wellington, aiid it is small wonder that those who attend tho excellent concerts by tho Wellington Professional Orchestra are appreciated by so many. Tho final concert of tho season is to be given to-morrow evening in His Majesty's Theatre, for which a good but highly popular programme has been arranged. It wul include Sibelius's impressive symphonic poem "Finlandia," the '"Zampa" overture, the beautiful "Angelus, from the "Scenos Pittoresques" of Massenet, tho "Maritana" overture; the great march from Berlioz "Damnation of Faust," the intermezzo.from "Cavalleria Rusticana," and a graceful dance by Sullivan. Mr. H. -Bloy will, as usual, conduct. Pioture Muslo. .Mr. Harold Groggon cast an. interesting sidelight on music at the picture shows when he related tlhe movement for the dispensing with orchestras in favour of the orchestral organ. Musicians have brought the trouble on themselves. For some years there was an active demand for orchestral players to supply musio for the thousands of "movie" shows in America, but that demand for their services brought about larger ideas of their value, and as managers were pressed by the unions for higher wages, they iooked round for some means of side-stepping the apparently interminable trouble. Thaifc set the inventive minds to work, with tho result —the orohestral organ, with its numerous trick attachments for representing all the instruments an orchestra could supply—all worked by the one man, and sometimes worked electrically by the pressure of a switch. In our picture theatres the music by day is usually supplied by'a pianist or a pianola, but of an evening a small orchestra supplies the necessary adjunct, and as a rule does so very well. The orchestra at the King's Theatre was for a time a very excellent little combination, and tho high-class music played was greatly appreciated. Quite recently an orchestra played the accompanyhigxmusic to "Neptune's Daughter," and was quite a good little band with an exceptionally fine violin leader, whoso choice of music was favourably commented upon by many. Now the orchestral trio appears to he the accepted thing in local picture theatres. Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Bloy, as violinist and pianist, with Mr. Frank Johnston as 'cellist, are to be associated shortly at Everybody's Theatre, whilst Mr. and Mrs. J., F. Woodward, with other support, go to tho Empress. Ohristchurch is exceptionally fortunate in having the Ellwood trio at His Majesty's Theatre. If performers of this calibre aro obtainable there is no need for the orchestral organ, but it has already been installed at Hoyt's Theatre, in Melbourne, and it is almost inevitable that it will come in time to New Zealand. The Heart of Chopin. "Of all j;he patriots in musio, Chopin was tlho most intensely national," says the "Monthly Musical Record" (London), "and it is pleasant to know that in tho retreat from Warsaw the most precious relic, the great Pole's heart, which was deposited in the Church of tTio Holy Cross there, was reverently removed to Moscow." "What did the Russians fear?" asks the editor of tho New York "Musical Courier." "That the Germans would eat Chopin's heart? Chopin was patriotic and intensely national, it is true, but: he was Polish and ho hated Russia cordially as tho oppressor of his country. Moscow is in Russia. Why, then, is it pleasant to know that Chopin's heart I was romoved there?"

.In reference to Ohopii and the war, Paderewski, the brilliant Polish pianist and a groat patriot, is giving Chopin recitals in the United States; and delivering addresses on the sadly shattered condition of his country. Tho proceeds .of the recitals are being dovoted to the relief of distress too awful to imagine, too terrible to contemplate. Mr. Harold Gregson, of Auckland, who heard .Paderewski play 'in San Francisco, in September, says that his playing is more spiritually beautiful than ever, and his power, to magnetise large audiences has increased rather than diminished. Fortune In a Song. Tho late Edwin Greene, composer of that tromeudously popular oallad, "Sing Me to Sleep," was one oi those fortunate composers who have been justly rewarded for their work Mr. Greene was in the hailds of honest publishers, Philli]is and Page, London, and received his regular royalty 011 every copy sold throughout the world. In fact, this ono song supported him. Ho never succeeded in producing another that came within miles of the success of "Sinf* i i Mo_ to Sleep." Mr. Greono was an invalid nearly all his life, and tho royalties brought him the oomfort that he so much needed^ Tho Difference. Evidently the neighbours did not think much of the singing of Ar.tonio, a Sausalito (Cal.) fisherman, for he was arrested and fined on a charge of disturbing the peace. _ "Dees town she no lika da moos'," said Antonio sadly, in speaking of his vocal excursion. "Dees peop' no on'erstan.' New. York, she geeva da Carus' 2500 dollars for seeng one song. Me, I seeng da Sausalit' for not'ing, and da Judge say twent'-fi' dollar!" A RcaNapanese Prima Donna. The only prima donna of Japanese birth and ancestry, it is said, who has over appepred in grand opera in Europe arrived in Now Yosk recently. She is Mme. Taniaki Miura, a native of Tokio, and wife of a professgr in the London University, Svho accompanied her to America. Mme. Miura sang in tho last Russian season of grand opera at tho London Opera House, where she won great approval in the title role of ■Madame Butterfly,",and has been engaged to appear in this role in the coming season of the opera company organised by Max Rabinoff.

She "displayed musical and vocal talent when very young, and after graduating from tho high school of Tokio- she entered the Academy of Music of that oity, from which she' received a diploma. In her graduation performance at that institution she sang the role of Enrydico in Gluck's "Orfeo." She made her operatic debut at tho new ' Imperial Theatre in the same city, ■ tho first operatic institution of European type in Japan, whore she sanp; the role of Santuzza- ill "Cavalleria Rusticana." After many operatic and concert appearances there she went Berlin for further training and experience, and then went to London to sing with tho Russian company. She was to have made her American debut as Madame Butterfly in Max Rabinoff's Boston' Company on October 5.

It is expected by tho London "Musical Times" that the expiration of the war will mark a great uplift in European musical composition as a result of the' mental shock- and the deeply stirred emotions of the music writers of to-day. It all depends. The American Revolution brought us 110 Beethoven in this country, the Napoleonic wars gave 110 outstandingly great composer to France, and tl'lo Franco-Prussian war failed to present Germany with any epoch-making musical genius traceable to that conflict.