MUSICAL FACTS.

Shannon News, 22 May 1928, Page 2

MUSICAL FACTS.

BREATHING FOR VOICE PRODUCTION. FORMS AND ORCHESTRATION. Although the weather was rough on Monday evening, there was quite a fair attendance at the lecture delivered in the De Luxe Concert Hall by Mr. Edwin Dennis, under the auspices of the W.E.A. Both vocal and instrumental characteristics were dealt with, giving the discourse a pleasantly varied style, which was further enhanced by the introduction of demonstrations of breathing exercises in connection with voice culture, and the use of the gramophone to elucidate musical forms and instrumentation. The value of the information conveyed was afterwards compared by a visitor to'the knowledge gained in the course of private tuition under highly paid exponents. VOCAL RESONANCE.

Mr Dennis referred, as in his previous lecture, to the prevalent practice of constricting the throat in speaking, resulting in the loss of resonance. He went on to say that sound produced from the chest could be heard three times as far as that produced under the above conditions. He asked the members of the class to take a deep breath, and when they did so he observed that they lifted their chests. Consequently he pointed out that, in taking a diaphragmatic breath, the chest was kept tight, while the expansion took place around the waist. The natural place to breathe was in the diaphragm, because the chest was held in by the ribs. A practice was held with the pupils individually, and the tutor advised them to continue the exercises in their homes, preferably when lying down. By means of this course, he explained, they would overcome the stiffening of the throat; if they tightened the chest, then they tightened the muscles of the throat. The first sign of tone in the exercises was a sigh. From that was developed the pure speaking voiee and the pure singing voice. People who felt hot after singing were those who had been using their throats; the same condition was the cause of certain speakers taking frequent drinks of water. Mr Dennis advised his hearers to practise diaphragmatic breathing in front of a mirj ror, to familiarise themselves with the movements.

COUNTERPOINT AND FUGUE

Continuing the* series of explanations of musical forms, the lecturer reminded the class that "contrapuntal" was an adjective describing a class of music in which three or four different melodies took place. After a part of the first melody had been played, another "voice," so-called, came in, giving forth an equally pretty melody, and further voices were introduced later, until there was a complete piece. In ordinary harmony, the melody on the top line was. tuneful, but the other parts were not interesting as a rule. "Fugues" were played or sung, usually the former. In a fugue there was a subject, and practically the whole of the fugue was made around the subject, which could be. likened to the text in a sermon. At the commencement a melody was given out' as the subject; after that subject w-as finished, they would find another "voice" giving out the subject. The second voice, however, gave the subject in the dominant fifth' above or fourth below the original key. Then came the third voice, in the original key; then the fourth "voice," a fifth above or a fourth below again. The second subject that was found was called the answer. When the answer taine in, as a rule the original voice went on to a! counter subject. In the middle of fugues they would also find episodes, which were like an episode in a story; an author might depart from his story to bring home some incident to make the hearers remember the story. After these episodes the return was made to the original subject. This was called an entry. They would also find in fugues a stretto, in which; instead of the second voice waiting for the first to finish its subject, it came in about a-quarter way through to play the same again, and the third and fourth came in before the first was finished. Bach wrote two books of 24 fugues each — 12 in the major key and 12 in the minor. The collection was called "Bach's Forty-eight, or The Welltempered Clavier," the sub-title referring to the new system of tuning, under which every key was properly produced, and by means of which any one of the preludes and fugues could be played with equal ease. Mr Dennis placed on the gramophone a fugue played on the organ by ,Goss-Custard. He commented that most folks would say that fugues were only the playing of a .lot of notes that did not mean anything; but when they could realise the meanings of a piece of music of that order, there was quite a fascination in following the various voices through and recognising the episodes.

THE TOY SYMPHONY. Keferring to the formation of sona- ! tas and symphonies, the lecturer announced that he had secured a record of the "Toy Symphony" of "Papa" Haydn, which he proceeded to reproduce. He explained that in this work Haydn used the stringed instruments for the foundation on which he placed toy trumpets, toy cuckoos, toy nightingales, rattles, triangles and drums. The toy trumpet, of eourse, could only be used when a bar happened to contain its note, G; but as most of the harmony was either, in the tonic or the dominant, there were plenty of opportunities for it For the cuckoo there were two notes, C and E. The nightingale added to the melody. The class would be able to realise the cleverness with which the composer had been able to use these toy instruments. In passing, Mr Dennis mentioned that during the war a number of soldiers, not otherwise musically trained, were able to take partß in an orchestra by using the toy instruments when. this piece was played at Etaples under the conductorship of Mr Percy Scholes. One side of the record contained the andante

moderato movement, and on the other side were the minuetto and finale. A unique feature of the record was that the drums only came in when the trumpets played. > CHOEAL POINTS. A record from "Carmen" was played, in which, besides a fair amount of chorus singing, there was a lot of very clever orchestration. The rendition Was by the Royal Covent Garden Opera chorus and orchestra, and the seleey tions were the opening chorus and tLe "Cigarette" chorus. Mr Denniß remarked that in many parts it would be noticed that the oboe, flute and clarinet carried the melody, with the violins playing more or less fancy ff, I work round it, but at timos taking theV" j melody themselves. From a choral ' point of view this was particularly instructive and interesting; it gave a good example of a nice attack, and it produced a good flowing melody without shouting all the. time. The diffi- '» culty with choral societies was to get sufficient variation. There was always < a section which forgot; if a conductor could make sufficient contortions all the time, they would remember, but when he was trying to beat time with- I , out showing much to the audience, they were apt to fall badly. This record showed the handling of crescendos and of changes to pianissimos, and in ) the latter everybody sang. Whatever special knowledge an audience might lack, in the main it knew quite a lot, because, if only a few of the choir were singing, the hearers would comment that the tone was thin, but if all the voices were singing in a soft passage the audience knew that the effeet was nicer. Generally speaking the listeners knew what was right—their discerning ear would tell them, Mr Dennis stated that on Monday , next he would deal further with musical terms and orchestration. The records used at the lecture were lent by His Master's Voice Company, for which Mr K. Aitken is the local - agent,. %)