THOUGHTS ABOUT MUSIC

Evening Star, Issue 23695, 1 October 1940, Page 3

THOUGHTS ABOUT MUSIC

[By L.D.A.j

Music gives tone to the universe; wings to the mind; flight to the imagination; a charm to sadness; gaiety and life to everything.—Plato. Once upon a time the visits of music examiners were sufficiently rare to be regarded as events of real importance in the musical life of this country. Nowadays they seem to have lost a good deal of their former significance—partly, perhaps, because the thing is being overdone. These learned professors used to travel singly, or, at most, in pairs j whereas to-day they come, not in single spies, but in whole battalions, -with the natural result that custom has staled their pristine variety. I might even hazard the assertion that not a few music teachers consider these well-intentioned gentlemen rather a nuisance and the annual visits as visitations, because it appears that each exminer has different ideas on the subject of musical interpretation and presensation. I have heard some strange stories in this connection. One of the funniest described the efforts of a _ well-known examiner to give illustrations at the piano of the manner in which, he alleged, certain pieces should be played. The exhibition was unconvincing. 1 am not suggesting that all visiting examiners are incompetent—far from it; some of them are very able musicians, and one, at least, is a brilliant virtuoso whom 1 shall specify more particularly presently. But that I the varying standards' of performance advocated and exemplified by these Associated Board representatives tend I to create confusion, annoyance, and distrust in the minds of local teachers and pupils cannot be doubted for a moment ; reports from a number of reliable sources offer complete confirmation of this impression. Another astonishing aspect is the blind faith reposed by fond parents in the power of the alphabetical distinctions conferred upon their offspring as a result of music examinations. Many good folk still regard the L.A.B.’s, L.T.C.L.’s, A.R.C.M.’s, etc.’ etc., as magic symbols, hall-marks of authority and competence, “ opensesames ” which shall ensure admission to the portals of artistic success. Equally surprising is the number of pupils who yearly manage to acquire these hieroglyphics without increasing the ranks of the really talented. This state of affairs will, I suppose, continue until the return of happy international conditions permits establishment of national conservatoriums of music in New Zealand. Then, it is to bo_ hoped, we shall have more uniform criteria of musical excellence, and something like order will be evolved out of chaos. •*• * . I mentioned just now that there is i one brilliant ornament in the company of examiners at present in this country. I refer to Mr Andersen Tyrer. For, 1 months past he has shouldered the im- , mense task of directing New Zealand’s I Centennial Musical Festival, and has j carried it through in triumphant style. I No better man could have been found for this arduous and exacting job. In i every centre of the Dominion Mr Tyrer has given overwhelming proof of his I outstanding gifts as organiser and con- ■ ductor, coupled with the qualities of tact, wisdom, good-fellowship, aud infinite patience seldom found in the musical make-up. In fact, his striking success is as much an achievement of personal character as of artistic ability. I have always known this would be the case since I first met Andersen Tyrer, and regular readers of this column may ■recall my prediction. But above and beyond all his other activities ho is essentially a virtuoso pianist, and I am delighted "to learn that we are shortly to hear him play two concertos with the Wellington Symphony Orchestra—i.e., by Rachmaninoff and Greig—and also in a Chopin recital. All this will be broadcast, the first items on October 8. So be sure to listen-in, every lover of the piano played by a real master.

The world has lost a very great musician indeed by the death of Sir Donald Francis Tovey, in Edinburgh, last July. Though little known to the general public, in musical circles he was an international celebrity, and his death is a particular loss to Edinburgh University, where he had been Reid Professor of Music for over 26 years. (This Reid professorship, by the way, was founded more than a century ago through the provision of a will left by General John Reid, a Scottish military commander, who gave £50,000 for the purpose. As far as I know, this is the only substantial legacy ever bequeathed in Great Britain towards musical education.) During that long period, as the London ‘ Times ’ obituary pointed out, Sir Donald Tovey raised the status of music in the University and city of Edinburgh immeasurably, and caused that Scottish centre to be regarded with deep respect by musicians of all nations. This he accomplished by his writings, his lectures, his teaching, his reformation of the university degrees in music, his establishment of the Reid Orchestra, and by the notes he wrote for that orchestra’s performances, which have been published under the title ‘ Essays in Musical Analysis.’ * • • • The wide-spread influence of this publication is indicated by a remark in a letter just received from a musical friend. He says: “ I have been deeply moved to hear of Sir Donald Tovey’s passing. It is only within the last year that I have discovered his series of books, ‘ Essays in Musical Analysis,’ but I can honestly say they mean more to me than all the writings on music I have ever read.” And when we learn what Tovey’s standing was in the estimation of acknowledged authorities we cannot wonder at enthusiasm for his work. Joseph Joachim, the friend of Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms, once said this about Donald Tovey when the latter was quite a young man: “ I think Tovey knows more music than anyone now living, and that means more than anyone has ever known, because there is now more to know.” This tribute, remarks ‘ The Times,’ may he thought extravagant, but it was the considered opinion of a great master who had known Tovey from boyhood. There is, of course, a large body of musical thought to which musicians of the Joachim and Tovey class make little appeal, because of their exclusively academic trend. Nevertheless, the world can ill afford to lose high idealists in music, and of these the late Sir Donald Tovey was perhaps the highest in our time.

Yet, maybe I am not fair in classing Tovey as merely academic, for, as the following quotation shows, he could unbend and become deliciously human. Sir Denys Bray wrote to ‘ The Times ’: “ May a very old friend of Donald Tovey add a few personal touches to your moving obituary? The mind of many a Balliol man of the ’nineties

will have gone back to the arrival amongst us of a strange youth with! flasliing eyes, a noble brow, and ways very different from ours—full of enthusiasm few of us could share yeti with a, gift of quick sympathy and simplicity that won our hearts. . Though ha was the mainstay of our* classical concerts Donald was never more happy, perhaps, than in the fan from classical atmosphere of our informal song club. . , . And who thati ever heard Tove, as we loved to call him, make his piano miraculously aliya with humour and amazing music in. lighter vein, could ever forget it? Deeply do we now regret that he could not be persuaded to put into writing bis delightfully whimsical paraphrases of ‘ You Are Old, Father William ’ and ‘ Harry and the Hornets.’ Dear Donald! England has lost a great man; many of us a very dear and most' faithful friend.”