Character in Notes

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 425, 6 August 1928, Page 1

Character in Notes

J I • “HUMAN INTEREST” I IN EXAMINATION i 1 MR. CHESTER SPEAKS OF MUSIC Every note a candidate plays in a musical examination is an indication of character, and so the work of an examiner does not become a monotony, but a study of great human interest. Mr. Russell Chester, examiner of the Royal Academy of Music, London, explained this to Rotarians at the luncheon to-day. Pie began by outlining the change in the public attitude toward music. Some time ago it was generally thought that the man who was devoting his life to music was wasting his time. Now music was appreciated as an educative factor. Tn England recently, English literature had been placed first in importance on the list of secondary school subjects, and on a level with it had come music, ahead of geography, history', and mathematics. Music was “world literature," and it had an . enthralling history of struggles and tears and triumphs behind it. Of course, to many people the word music meant the annoyance of five-finger exercises played by the litlte girl next door, or the barrage of the orchestra which prevented conversation during theatre intervals. Popular songs, with piffling text, were often the “slum area” on the outskirts of a great art. One tired of this music, but the really great compositions were abiding friends. The

“Moonlight Sonata” was still a delight to Mr. Russell Chester, although he had heard it played well, badly, and indifferently a thousand times. England possessed the foremost composers and executive artists of the day, and they had something to give without which life would be poorer. They were equally as important as the poets, the painters, and the architects, but one must meet them halfway.