WHAT IS GOOD MUSIC?

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 98, 19 January 1935, Page 15

WHAT IS GOOD MUSIC?

Mr. Ernest Jenner Gives His Views THE INFLUENCE OF RADIO The gifted English pianist, Mr. Ernest Jenjier, who resided in Wellington for some years and is now in Christchurch, has been airing his views on music, its performance ant] musical taste in New Zealand in an interview at New Plymouth. Asked if the appreciation of goodmusic was growing in New Zealand, Mr. Jenner began by drawing attention to the mistaken idea as to what was good music. Music had to "ring true,” to be the expression of the life of the people and the home in which it was written ami also expressive of the individual mind of the composer, who was often ahead of the period in which he lived. Much of what was regarded as good music did not appeal to him at all, said Mr. Jenner, as it did not ring true; it was written merely tp satisfy the popular taste and was not expressive of anything. One could hardly gauge the extent to which good taste was developing because of the influence of radio, which, in his opinion, too largely pandered to popular requirements. Broadcasting Boar d Criticised. , “The broadcasting board is not venturesome enough in its engagements of artists and the arrangements of its programmes,” yvas Mr. Jenner’s stricture. “It has the opportunity of leading public appreciation of music that matters, but if anything it is lowering it by tending listeners to like pieces that are not worth while. Such artists as the board engages are not always goo.d musicians—they are only suiting the general public taste.” Mr. Jenner had no liking for M. Chostiakoff, the Russian tenor, for instance. He liked his voice, but he sang only what the public wanted. He was just as severe in his criticism of the work of other visiting celebrities, whether engaged by the broadcasting board or not.

Mr. Jenner held that broadcasting programmes should be kept to as high a standard as possible. Educational sessions of really worthwhile works should be approached properly and not thrust on people, who required to be shown xhy better music was more enjoyable.

Not Enough Good Music.

It was not that the broadcasting board was not giving some good music, but that it was not giving enough of it. The whole system seemed to be to feed listeners with what they knew already. Tflere were songs and pieces much more worth-while knowing that one never heard. There was only one way to inculcate an appreciation of good music, the greater merit of which could never be defined, and that was by repeated hearing, which would bring the mind" to eventual realisation of what lay behind the music—bring the listener, in effect, in close touch with the mind of the composer and cause him to appreciate the depths of meaning to be explored. Asked to. explain his objection to what many people who liked it regarded as good music, Mr. Jenner said the cry was for good music of only a physical appeal—rowdy, noisy compositions. WJiat was wanted was music that would appeal to the intellect—an aim of culture, a word so hard to define. Jt did not necessarily have to be complicated—most gqojl music was simple when one came to appreciate it. Value of Folk Music.

After giving his views on a certain class of popular music, which the public “lapped up,” Mr. Jenner was asked to say what was good music. Some of it, .he said, was folk music and the lesser-known songs of Brahms and Wolf, said Mr. Jenner. In folk music, he instanced Hebridean music and Highland tunes, and for the other preferences Brahms’ “Is It Joy or Grief?” —a masterpiece. “Serenade” and “Lullaby” were practically the only songs of Brahms generally known. “Folic music is true art,” continued Mr. Jenner. “To me, many of these comparatively unknown tunes tower in musical value far above most of the better known melodies. They ring true; one feels them to be sincere art, expression of a people living a simple, natural life. They have a strength, a rugged beauty like that o_f the land which produced them. “Such music as these old folk tunes and some of the songs of Brahms and Wolf could be taught in the schools, and there could be laid the foundation of good taste, an antidote to the sickly sounds of popular music.”

Air. Jenner expressed a liking for modern English composers, particularly Armstrong Gibb’s “For Restoration” songs, which were good solid English music. He was also extremely fond of the works of the late Frederick Delius, but of Sir Edward Elgar he smilingly refused to give an opinion, except to say that he did like the Enigma Variations and the “Dream of Gerontius.” Jazz Now Exhausted. Jazz music was the expression of a post-war world, but it was now exhausted. While admiring jazz because of its clever rhythms and orchestrations and contributions to the advance of technique, Mr. Jenner pointed out that many good musicians, academicians many of them, were responsible for the cleverest orchestrations of the best jazz music, which they did under assumed names with their tongues in their cheeks because there was more money in it. All music of this type left him cold, he explained, because it expressed nothing. “Jazz is the present expression of the age only of the coarser tastes, just as music hall songs were the coarser expression of the Victorian age. All that is wanted for people to appreciate better music is repeated hearing; any listener must be prepared at the end of a first hearing not to like a work, but he must not turn it down. In each successive hearing he will find more and more hidden meaning. Popular taste has been developed by repetition, and it is to be stressed that better tastes can be developed the same way.”