MUSIC.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2635, 4 December 1915, Page 9

MUSIC.

fCr TBBBM CtBP.l Th# "Messiah" Week. Tho chief musical attraction next neck will be t]io Musical Union's performanco of "The Messiah" on Wednesday at the Town HoJl. Mt., Robert I arker is to conduct, and Mr. Herbert Olaughton will preside at the console. On the following Wednesday the Royal Choral Society, under Mr. Bernard i age, will also bo heard in tho greatest or Handel's works. Examination of Teachers. The proposed introduction of a State examination for music teachers has aroused great interest in Germany (6ays the "Musical Courier"), but it has mot, on the whole, with more opposition than approval. The opinions of the following musical authorities which have been published m "Die allgemeine Musikzeituiig" in answer to inquiry made by that paper, will be found of interest. They are often diametrically opposed to each other. As these answers are in many oases too lengthy to be quoted in full, I will only give a few of tliom in a condensed form. "Gustav Hollaender, director of the Stern Conservatory, whose opinion is based on long pedagogic experience, is decidedly opposed to the movement. He tolls of disastrous results in iho case of examinations at musical seminaries. In one case Joseph Joachim, who read the examination papers, is said to have declared that ho did not possess himself the necessary knowledge for passing 6uch an examination. Hollaender says that from the information given out thus_ far it is not clear whether the examinations are to be restricted to teachera only or are ' to include tlio pupils also. 'If it is intended,' he writes, 'to extend the State examination so as to inc'udo all utudentß of music, the result would be a great damage to art and an immense, loss to the world. Pedagogic knowledge cau bo acquired, but genius or talent; is a gift from fairyland, and it is tho duty of those thus gifted to develop their gifts to the greatest possible artistic degree. . . Men like Franz Liszt, Hans von Bulow,: Leschetizky, aiid Joseph Joachim, who achieved the greatest results and immortal fame as pedagogues, never passed au examination.'"

On this subject the "Courier" states that Max Reger opposed examinations, Max Pauer favoured ' them, Richard Strauss was evasive, and Carl Flesch favoured a State control of examinations, but not of instruction per se. Tho subject is of interest- in New Zealand, where tho saino subject was mooted about three years ago. |

Non-Belligerent Musio. Says the London "Musical. Nows":— 'The attempt of some well-meaning person to banidi all German music from programmes, so far from prospering seems to be arousing more opposition the longer it is persevered in, which is evidence of the good sense of English people. As wo have said before, probably no one wants at present, to hear or to perform music by modern German composers, quite irrespective of its merits, just as no olio,is particularly keen on entertaining enemy aliens, oven if they happen to be, personally, quite estimable; but to endeavour,, by implication, to saddle Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, or Schumann with the responsibility for the present' war is too ridiculous for words. Why on earth should we cut off our" nose to spite our face? If, in times of peace, wo have enjoyed the music of the masters, and 'have found that it brought comfort and refreshment to our souls, surely in time of Avar we are not called upon to cut outselves off from such a,' source of strength ?

In.' some quarters there is a tendency to excuse tlio retention of Beethoven's niusic on the ground that'ho was of Dutch extraction and passed most of his life in Vienna. . But Vienna is as much a German city, though not of the same kind, as Munich or Berlin, and as for the Dutch extraction, that is of littlo moment for the family had been long Tosideut in the German town of Bouu, where the great composer was born.. If this kind of argument is to have any weight wo shall havo Greig claimed as a Scotch composer next, on the indubitable facts that his ancestors came from Scotland and spoiled their name Greig! A fig for such apologetic arguments. ,We mean to . keep-to Bach and Beethoven, just because tliey are Bach and Beethoven, and for no other reason in the whole wide'world. It matters not a pin's point whether they were Ger-. inans or not-.- Let it suffice that they were not of the modern German typo." Notos. Tho little' town of Schmallcalden, in Thuringia, celebrated on Sunday, September 5, the hundredth anniversary of Carl Wilhelm, tho composer of "Die Waclit am Rliein." The celebration in-, eluded the unveiling of a memorial tabjet, which was attached to the house in which Wilhelm was born, and the singing' of "Die Waclit am Rhcin" and another of his compositions, "Wir wollen Deutsche, niclits als Deutsche sein." It's a lively watch oil the Rhino tlie Germans will havo to keep next March. The incidental music to "Neptune's Daughter" at tho People's Picture I Palace recently was arranged and con- ' duoted by Mr. Louis D. Austin, and not by anotlier member of the orchestra as stated previously.