MUSICAL CULTURE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2124, 5 July 1907, Page 2

MUSICAL CULTURE.

ADDRESS BY MR. SIDEBOTTOM. A preliminary meeting was held at tho Technical School last night for the purpose of commencing a class of musical education. Mr. AV. Morgan occupied tho chair, and called upon the lecturer to give his address. Mr. Sidebottom explained that the lessons would be in .the nature of sin"ing at sight, and pupils would be able to take a piece of music and sing it from the old notation. There was also a lot of music published in the Tonic Sol-fa notation, and this was most easily intelligible. No twithstanding the fact that the bulk of tho music was published in the old notation, it was a closed book to those wlieo were not instrumentalists or those who had not gone under instruction in sight-reading, which is necessary for their pleasure. Music should be read quite easily, and the speaker illustrated his meaning by reference to the alphabet; the latter and printed words could be taken in at a '-lance. The reason of the difference was the unfamiliarity of the music. Letters were only made, arbitrarily, and m the course of time meanings were acquired and altered in development or evolution. The language of the present day was not tlic- language of 2000 years ago. AVords had been brought to mean certain things and to convey certain ideas bv means of symbols in the form of notes—they were sounds, but were, not always musical. The result ofjix months’ tuition would be that the ounil would be able to sing well at sight, without a piano accompaniment. It would bo necessary to understand the difference of notes, intervals, scales, and keys, and practice with the modulator would be necessary to understand the ordinary signs, symbols, etc., without any music, and to understand the completeness of the time, value of the notes, etc. ■ and then, although it would be an absolute impossibility to do much with it, ho intended giving some ideas about the throat and the production of the human voice in class. He would give all necessary information. The theory of music would ,be applied and would be taught in class, and every candidate who paid attention and attended regularly would be able to sing anthems, hymns, songs, etc., at sight—not, perhaps, absolutely perfectly, but the pupil would very soon know if he were wrong and how to correct it. A question was asked as to whether it would be necessary to have a knowledge of a musical instrument. The lecturer replied: None whatever ; everything would be taught through the medium of the tonic sol hearing it sung frequently and much music was not obtained' from it. For learning a song sonie people relied on hearin git sung frequently and much played on an instrument, but the course of lessons opened a wider field. The instruction could be mastered as easily as jieople learned to read, if they applied themselves jiroperly. It was quite as plain as sentences in English. It would, of course, be imperative that the names of the notes be learned. Air. Leslie moved that a class for vocal instruction, as proposed In- Air. Sidebottom, be established in connection with the Gisborne Technical School, provided sufficient inducement offered. Seconded by Miss Gilmour, and carried unanimously. The Chairman stated that the fee would probably amount to 10s 6d per quarter, but if there were about 30 or 40 attending it should be reduced. They did not want to make a profit—they only desired that the class should be self-supporting.

It was decided to start the classes at 7 p.m. next Monday. A number of names were enrolled, and intending members should join at once, as it would be inconvenient to enter after the class starts.