WORLD of MUSIC

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 15 November 1924, Page 3

WORLD of MUSIC

NOTES AND COMMENTS. Writing from Auckland, Miss Maida Hooker, who is staying - therefor some fime, speaks enthusiastically of the Society of Musicians. At one of their meetings , recently they had a lecture by Walford Davies on the granifiphone. He is one of the greatest living English organists and composers. . ■ She has been coaching some students, and is very pleased to report that one of . them, a girl from Hamilton, got through her L.A.B. under Dr. Haigh, being one out of five. It is • very cfeditable to both teacher and student; 'Mi\ Albert Mallirison, who is exaniining for .the, Trinity College, London, will be in Hawera on November 26 and, 27. ' male voice concert. Tuesday evening will see the last concert of the season, and for this an excellent programme has been arranged. The part songs will be a fine selection and. serve to demonstrate the ability of the choir in choral work. The soloist of the evening will be Miss Kathleen Wood, a soprano of great parts, who has made a great reputation wherever she has sung. The Wanganui Herald, reporting on her singing in June,* was very complimentary to- the young singer. : She sang last year the lovely arias in Elijah, and I the critic said that ‘ ‘her sweet voice was heard to perfection in those exacting solos.”. They are such as to deinand a very high standard of art and expression, a great range, and power of interpretation. On. Tuesday she will sing' “One Pine Day,” from Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly,” and “Spring’s Awakening,” by Sanderson. MUSIC IN EDUCATION.

Recently at the Otago- University yMb D,r. Galway gave ~an address on ‘The. Place of Music in Our: State System of Education,” and not the least interesting part of the talk upon the subject was the .amount of . wit and hipnour illustrative of . our. national arid social, shortcomings in respect of tlie cultivation of. imagination and the aft of expression of the human emotions as related to what the . imagination conjures, up in the mind: of men. Dr. Galway opened his. address by saying that music was heard by few', and then very rarely,. Music to-day suggested to one a musical evening, so called a concert‘or air opera, where the ultimate result Was only that someone disturbed the atmosphere, the fact theri* remaining that a vast number of people never heard and never had heard music adequately performed, rind expressed. He emphasised that mucic was the expression of. all that was Jbest in • mankind, aiid ' instanced that Schopenhauer : —prince of pessimists—was attached to the music of Beethoven, and- that his music drew from him the words i “Music dreams of the Eternal Spirit 1 from which’death is the awakening,” It was music 1 rind its power that drew, out from Schopenhauer those; Words which contradicted his outlook on the’ world of life. Music was expression, and : the definition of the word ivas: “Expression is the life and the outward aha visible' sign of the soul.” In education it was fundamental that imagination’and expression should be. cultivated. ' Music' cultivated the imagination and generally raised the standard, of a nation’s culture. : In this respect our national system of : education lamentably failed. The kinds oh amusements ‘ a people pursued gave the factor by which it was. possible to estimate hew high or degraded. the taste' arid culture of that people might 1 be. To form ah opinion of ' our taste and idealisation it was necessary only to consider the amusements most popular’ amongst us. That showed the necessity for the proper cultivation-of the spirit of : niusic. : and its value as an adjunct 1 to the intellect •as distinct from the heart. Even time and "rhythm as distinct from melody had, .tremendous power of their own. That could be seen in the rhythmic effect the beating of drums had upon the whirling dervishes in the East. Savages well understood and appreciated. the effects of' rhythm. They u6ed it in their ceremonies of worship and in" war dances to ’work up their fighting power. Here again it showed its immense power to produce expression. The head was the commercial manager amongst the intelligent, but the heart ever remained, the spiritual one; The head was intellect; the heart was sentiment. Even a hard-headed, analytically and logically-minded barrister needed iriiagination, and used it to sway a jury, showing that in- the matter of influencing - thought the power of imagination and. sympathy • was incalculable. 1 Nothing evoked the emotions and. trained, the imagination as did music, and the true conception and appreciation of the value of music being lacking in our educational sys-tem,-it had failed lamentably to light the lamp of imagination. Most of what was done was only mimicry. There •was no interpretation. Plato said: “Music was the finest thing the State could teach its people.” Dr. Galway had not much to say that was' good of music a lexaminations. They were futile to test the soul. Neither could he give admiration to solo work in competitions. To choral' work he could. The songs of the folk lore of nations were admirable; : they expressed the imagination and spirit’ of race and character. He was impressed with the idea that the New Zealand University had now inducted musical culture in its curriculum.' .It was beginning ’ at the top of the.-tree certainly, hut from that source the culture ’ would permeate that was good of musical examinations.

MUSIC AND GAMES. (London Times.) A great many of those who are in the shooting lodges of the Highlands fof the season attended the games in the. Northern Meeting Park but tlie gather-’ ing was essentially a Highland one. The presence of Mackintosh of Mackintosh, Macpherson of Cluriy and other clan chiefs engaged in carrying out the arrangements in the Park t strikes the characteristic note of the Meeting, and carries on its old traditions. Pipe-Major John MacDonald (Inverness), who won the gold claso for his nibroch playing, was acclaimed the champion piper of the year. The competition, in which nine pipers took part, was confined to those who had already won the gold medal of the Northern Meeting. The first Drize for playing of a strathspey and reel went to Corporal Greenfield. Royal Scots. Lanre groups of kilted dancers took nni’t in the sword dance , and the Reel of T'dloch. .Tames Maitland, who threw heavy hammer 94ft. 6in.. stands 9ft. 4in. in height, and weighs 15 stone.. His rival, Sergeant-Maior Starkey, was '"eaten in the hammer throwing bV only four inches.

MUSIC AND HEALTH. (Auckland Times.) I That human life moves rhythmically j rather than in flat and steady pror : gtession is a fact to which both psy- ; chologists and physiologists;.'are fat fife- ! sent devoting a good deal of'attention. ! A s thpre is a rhythm of the heart and of the brain, so also there is a rhythm' of work and a rhythm of play. Men accomplish their ends by “fits and starts,” rest pauses succeeding nattirally to spells of activity. Thus, as Sir Robert Armsirong-Jones points out in the London Times, human enterprise is frequently intensified by the potent rhythms of music. The ‘drums of war” are no mere pageantry; they add, conspicuously and decisively > to the ardour of those who hear them. From immemorial time, indeed, men have roused their fighting instincts with wild music, and cheered their depression with tune or song. Music, too/ is dne of the oldest therapeutic measures of which record exists. The _ spectacle of the stripling David playing his harp' in the presehce of the gloomy, phantom-haunted Saul i s EO familiar that its significance is apt to he overlooked. For some reason modern medicine has tended to leave music out of its list of remedies, Though "it stood high in the regard of all earlier generations of healers. The explana-tion™-7 P° ssib] y he that its influence, subtle, mysterious, and incalculate, is .a stumbling-block to the exact mind science. Of the power of this influence, however, there can be no doubt, and Sir Robert ArmstrongJones has a' puhlic. service' in emphasising it. He declares emphatically that those whose vocation is the care of the mind will realise how much they owe to the curative agency of the emotion roused by music m the restoration of diseased mental states, by its meansV hope and courage tinay'be'; teisbdi despondency dissipated, and healthy .mental action may be stimulated. Iny bls plea reveals the changed attitude of psychiatry to the emotional life. It is no longer the fashion, as it used to be, to relegate the emotions to a position of inferiority in relation to the intellect. On the contrary, the _ truth that it i s by his emotions that man lives and strives and, achieves is now recognised. Intellect and elriotmn. indeed, are not separate functions of the mind, hut rather expressions of its activity. Thus great ‘ ‘mind tonics’ ’ such as music exert an influence on leason as well as on feeling. They are capable of restoring harmony ni the spirit, and so of exerting a healing power on every member of the body. 5 "

WAR CHOIR REUNION

SIR; WALhORD AND LADY DAVIES, HONOURED. (South. Wales News.) During the war Dr. Sir Walford Davies formed a male voice choir, which did excellent' service at chmps and hospitals and in various-other ways, and sincie: the members have kept together. East: year they entertained Sir Walford at dinner in recognition of . his having received, a knighthood. On September 27, at Anderton’s Hotel, London, the members of the choir gave Lady Davies and. Sir Walford a- complimentary dinner on the occasion of their marriage. During the evening, national, part, folk, ana other songs were' 4 sung, and the chairman, on behalf of the choir, presented Sir 4 Walford arid Lady Davies with an Algerian tray of beaten brass inlaid,-with silver and inscribed;: “Presented.- to ■; Sir, Walford' •Davies as a token of affection from the members of his wartinfe male voice choir on his marriage, September 4, 1924. V In making the presentation, Mr. Denham referred to the affection iii - ifhich; '"Sir' members’bf his old. choir, and. they all wished :the nearly wedded, pair every happiness and, long life. . Dr, Sir Walford Davies feelinglv replied. . " \ ' ... '

SUNDAY. MUSIC.

SULLIVAN’S ‘ ‘FESTIVAL TE DEUM”

(By an English Music Critic.)

On© of the most frequently heard charges against the Protestant churches is that they neglect art and present religion in a drab dress. For a long period in their history the churches did undoubtedly shun the aids of music and scrupulously removed the tawdriness of. display which was mistaken for art. But many churches have turned to music as 'an aid to worship and elevated it to a position of importance in the service and as part of the church work; In South'Wales there are many excellent church choirs who dot something more than lead • the plain congregational; singing, and it is pleasing to notice' that with the appearance of the trained musicians as organists the choristers improve in their work, and are capable of undertaking the serious presentation of church music of the higher forms.

The choir of the Splott Wesleyan Church, under the conductorship of Mr. W. J. Dodds, the organist, last night sang Sir' Arthur Sullivan’s “Festival Te Deum,” with Madame Edith Gunter-Wiliams as soloist. The harvest festival’ of the church had been lield during the day, with a special afternoon musical festival, and the church, which was filled, for the evening event, ' was artistically decorated with - floral offerings. Sullivan’s music is always'grateful to English, singers, and English listeners, too, and the choir gave an excellent performance of the, “Festival. Te Deum.” The choir of fifty voices is nicely balanced, and their singing wa s marked, with dignity of diction, purity of tone, and exceeding delicacy in. the softer passages. Some of the themes were sung with ethereallike delicacy. One felt, however, the need, of a little more colour and warmth in the heavier passages. Madame Gunter-Williams sang with fine feeling and restraint, and, helped considerably to secure the marked success of. the performance./ One does not recall a finer example of ■ her .soulful singing. Mr. W, J. Dodds, played the accompaniments on the organ with artistic skill and reserve, as an accompaniment should be played, and the whole performance did credit to his musicianship and training of the choir. These annua! musical services are commendable in every way.