HARMONIC SOCIETY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 297, 11 September 1919, Page 8

HARMONIC SOCIETY

FEAST OF CHORAL MUSIC. The Wellington Harmonic Society is now a firmly-established unit of the. citv's all-too-limited musical forces, and it well deserves tho favour it has won by sheer hard work and earnest endeavour under capable instruction. Now that tho war clouds have rolled away, it is hoped that tho arts of pence will be more assiduously cultivated, and of theso there is none so gratifying as music in all its varied forms. Part singing m choral form is esontiaCly an English institution, and tho concert given nt tho Concort Chamber last evening was heartily enjoyed. The part singing, though perhaps a little weak at times in puro vocal quality, was rendered onjoyabfe by the manner of varied expression given to eaoh number. Mr. H. Temple White is a strict disciplinarian, and as the effect he wishes to produce is invariably tho correct ono, ho is able to iret those ensemble nuances which give life and colour to tho scngs. It was particularly pleasing to henr tho choir reflect tho troo shading in Coleridge-Taylor's fine part song, "Tho Leo Shore" (Tom Hoods verses), and to note that the audience was quick to rospond to tho good work done. Maughan Baniett's pretty little madrigal. "The World was no Clanging Discord Then," was aJso well sung. Granville BantocVs "Awake, A.wakp."'was nnotlier joyous pastorale, very cleverly harmonised. The ladies made a very distinct success of Elgar's "Ply, Singing Bird, a number that was graced and sustained by the violin and piano accompaniment provided bv Misses Laurie Anderson nnd Dorothy Stills and Mr. Harold Whittle. This charming part song was encored, Fernaps tho most popular number on tho programme was the' old part song lho Bells of St. Michael's Tower." Its comic lines were crisply sung, and tho bell effects produced by the voices in curious harmonic relation, with the well-graded swell and diminuendo, wcro tellingly done. Tho subtleties of Elgar's 'Go, Song of Mine" did not find the voices sustaining tmo. Ditch tho whao tune, but in H. 8. Roborton's setting of 'lho Laird o' Cockpen" the choir sang with gusto. Tho final choral number was Percy Fletcher's patriotic chorus, "For Empire and King/' tho music of which hardly does the fullest justice to the high-flown lyrics. The society had the assistance of Miss Eileen Driscoll, who is well known to audiences. She sang Coleridge Taylors dramatic song "An Indian Squaw s bong (a poem which Albert Mallinson has aT.so treated in song form) very weffl indeed, and obtained an eft'ectivo contrast by singing as an encore Nevin's "One Spring Morning." Later Miss Driscoll carolled Cyril Scott's lovely "Blackbird's Song' very sweetly. .Her recall was Alfred HiK's "Waiata Maori," a number which her inherent frailty of tone could not do lho fullest justice to. Tho dramatic passage descriptive of Maoris dancing a war liaka was hot very convincing, lho Dinger was much more at home in her third number, "Canterbury Bells." Miss Laurie Anderson, a violinist of promising capacity, plaved KrieSTef's 'LieborfreuflV' and as an encore tho same composers "Rose Marin." She also played tho "Meditation" from Massenet s opera "Thais," and Drdla's "Souvenir. Mr. Harold Whittle's work at tho piano was excellent.