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New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12621, 4 December 1926, Page 14

Dorr CONCERNING RECITALS Don’t make your programmes long; make them short. Remember that it is in one sense more tiring to listen than to perform, and that a good thing becomes a bad ono when unduly protracted. Don’t place a classical work after a modern one: it is unfair to both works and is a historical misdeameanour I Don’t sacrifice art to virtuosity, for this is nothing less than musical prostitution, born of the desire to "show off." Don’t be too free with your encores; it' is immodest and cheapens you in the eyes of the public. J • • CONCERNING PLATFORM MANNERS Don’t rush on to the platform as if you were catching a train; it is both unnecessary and undignified. Don’t, when bowing, to your audience, wear aperpetual and ingratiating smile; remember you are an artist and not a head-waiter. Don’t look inordinately pleased at the slightest applause: it gives the impression that yoti have never been applauded in your life before. Don’t be coy with your audience: if you are young and pretty, it is irritating and superfluous, and if you are elderly it makes you look ridiculous. Don’t, while performing, think either of yourself or of your audience, but solely of art and its "interpretation. • * * * CONCERNING TRICKS OF PIANISTS Don’t snort or breathe loudly while playing, but learn to breathe silently and correctly. . Proper . breathing is never accompanied by noise. Don’t throw yourself about, or squirm and gyrate on the piano-stool; remember you. are a pianist, and not an acrobat, a ballet-dancer nor a monkey. Remember also that tlio piano is not an orchestra to bo conducted nor a child to be punished, but an instrument to be played. Don’t, in impassioned moments, jump on the pedal with your whole foot, but keep your heels well on the ground and pi*ess the pedals silently. Don’t roll yourself into a hall and put vour head nearly on the keyboard, following, as it were, every movement of your fingers. The latter do not require scrutiny and your appearance is not improved bv your turning yourself into a hunchback. Don’t perform tricks with your mouth or your tongue, because, if you do, the audience will so preoccupied with looking at you that they will forget to listen to you" Don’t prelude each item with the same chords, usually of a banal nature. Should you possess no creative talent or gift for" improvisation, then do not prelude at all. • * CONCERNING DIVERS THINGS Executants—Don’t practise so much, that you prastise all the music out of your souls and become automatons: remember that spontaneity is ono of the greatest charms. Don’t take yourselves or your achievements too seriously*, self-exaltation Is more than often tlio cause of nervousSingers—Don’t forget that you are concerned with a double art —the musical and poetical combined; therefore literary culture is as important to your achievements as musical culture. Don’t be (or appear to he) so preoccupied with producing your notes correctly that interpretation becomes a secondary consideration: a really great singer is not merely a glorified megaphone but an orator and actor as well. Don’t over mistake exaggeration for musical expression—true and charmful expression is always produced by beauty of tone and phrase, never by distortion. Female singers—Don’t make "catty” remarks about other singers: how can you ever bo a channel for noble sentiments if you soil your minds with jealousy and pettiness? Musicians in General—Don’t bo always (talking or thinking "shop!" If you have only tlio on© idea in your heads you will never bo great artists, but only musical "tradesmen."