JAZZ MUSIC IS NOT ENTIRELY BAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 58, 31 May 1927, Page 13

JAZZ MUSIC IS NOT ENTIRELY BAD

ADDRESS TO ROTARIANS Some people scoff at jazz, said Dr. S. K. Phillips, addressing the Auckland Rotary Club on “Music in the Old Country,” at the club’s luncheon to-day, but it gave amusement, and might—though rarely was it the case —be really good music. It was only an exaggeration of syncopation, which had been known for centuries. The English ballad was dying, and was being replaced by art music. It was a good thing that the vogue for pot-boiling ballads was on the wane. England was not an opera-going nation. Moreover, there was too little good music in the older operas. Leading modern opera composers in England were Gustave Holst, Vaughan Williams, and McKenzie. In Covent Gardens, one of the few' theatres where opera was really well done, there were many good voices, but too little good singing. Colonial audiences were very critical and if the minor Italian opera companies were to produce in the Dominion they w'ould be thought little of. The difficulty of getting large scale new works produced nowadays was hindering the flow of major compositions. What was needed was a fund which would enable new works to be kept before the public until their qualities had been realised. Of conductors Sir Henry Wood kept well in the public eye. as also did Sir Landon Ronald. But Sir Thomas Beecham, no great musician, but wonderfully magnetic and original in his readings, was most magnetic of them all. Dr. Phillips traversed the field of vocal and instrumental music, the newer English composers and church music. Broadcasting and the gramophone had done much to improve the taste of the day.