MUSIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 494, 25 October 1928, Page 16

MUSIC

(By

F.1.R.)

Mr. James Hay, formerly popular in Gilbert and Sullivan operas, ts singing at one of the picture theatres in Sydney. It is said that Paderewski is to make three appearances on the talking film for an enormous amount, which is probably grossly exaggerated, while McCormack, Kreisler, and Heifetz have also been approached. * * * Miss Valda Johnstone, who has been deputising in Melbourne, broadcasting for Miss May Broderick as a pianist of the Strad Trio, is a very brilliant little pianist, who has but recently celebrated her fourteenth birthday, and whose musical career will be followed with much interest (states the Australian “Listener-in”). She commenced her musical education at the age of three, and made her first public appearance in Wellington at the age of five and a-half, states the journal, “where the critics hailed her as a musical prodigy, and she was regarded as the most promising pupil of the late Benna Scherek. While she has been deputising for Miss Broderick. her programmes have included such difficult works as the Beethoven C Minor Trio, which even for an experienced musician presents many pitfalls. She is the daughter of Mr. Frank Johnstone, the premier "cellist of New Zealand, also known to listeners as a prominent member of the Strad Trio, and is at present continuing her studies under her mother’s direction.”

Signor A. Carpal, the Italian impresario, is at present organising a grand opera company of 75 people to tour the Far East. Signor Carpai has a yearly contract to produce grand opera at the Imperial Theatre, Tokyo, Japan. At the termination of ♦h* Tokyo season the entire company tr, fhrough Java, Philippine Islands, Settlements, Federated Malay Burma, and India. Signor I Is a very wealthy man, and ** made his entire fortune from tourg grand opera through the Far East. Signor Carpal has no trouble in pro- . g the world's best artists, as mo t anxious to make this

“JAZZ MUST DIE”

STRAUSS’S PROFESSION OF FAITH MELODY WILL LIVE “Poor musical comedy!” says the superior persons, with apparent sympathy. “Its career is over, its days are numbered, and, like that other form of art, opera, it will soon lose all its popularity.” No. ladies and gentlemen, musical comedy is not dead, states Oscar Strauss, the famous composer of light music. Ido not say this merely as a “tutor” of musical comedy but as one who firmly believes In its future, and I welcome the opportunity of making my profession of faith. I do not write for snobs or for musical “freaks,” but for the general public. I try to find the happy medium between what is essentially dramatic and what is easily understood, and this brought me to musical comedy. But now. after many years of work, my opinion as to the real meaning of music remains the same as it was at the beginning of my career. Melody the Thing I hold that melody is the main thing. The “modern” forget this only too often. Either they start as individualists on a groundwork of certain principles and become too intellectual, or they develop a speciality simply because they have no musical inventiveness. The people will not believe, no matter how often they are told by superior minds, that melody is dead and that our classics are out of date and convey no meaning to the modern listener. They are still fond of real music, and have an unswerving and sincere affection for the really musical compositions which the superior persons have sentenced to death. The jazz and the nigger styles were not born of the spirit of music, which is quite foreign to such manifestations, and although for the time being, the public seems to find pleasure in this kind of thing, it will cure itself of this passing indisposition and will return to the broad road of eternal principles—the road traced out for us by the great musicians of the past. I feel convinced that a great reaction in music must come soon—a great renaissance, bringing with it the resurrection of eternal melody, which is not tied down to any particular period. The public, misled by snobs and musical cranks, will some day discover that the tuneless or so-called “atonal” music, no longer corresponds, just like purely descriptive music, to the eternal essence of music; that Beethoven, for instance, is in no way out of date, and that any modern composer is quite at liberty to write like Beethoven —if he can!

“The finest ‘Aida’ I have ever seen,” is Mr. Walter Fuller’s enthusiastic description of the vocal and personal characteristics of Miss Dusolina Giannini, the celebrated grand opera star, who is to visit New Zealand next year under the auspices of Mr. E. J. Gravestock. Miss Giannini created such a furore at Covent Garden this year that she has ben re-engaged as one of the big attractions at the famous opera house next season, prior to coming out for her Australian and New Zealand tour, ,

MAORI MUSIC

Alfred Hill’s Cantata Hinemoa THURSDAY NEXT One of the principal musical attractions of the year, and undoubtedly one that will prove the most popular, will he the presentation of Alfred Hill’s Maori cantata, “Hinemoa,” at the Town Hall on Thursday evening next. Alfred Hill’s work never fails to draw, and in addition to this attraction will be a programme of selected Maori numbers by Maori girls and hoys from Queen Victoria and St. Stephen’s Colleges The cantata tells the well-known

story of Hinemoa, the beautiful maiden of Rotorua, who was loved by Tutanekai, the younger son of a great chief, whose tribe was at war with that of Hinemoa. Hinemoa agreed to escape in a canoe across the lake and join Tutanekai on his island home of Mokoia. in Rotorua lake. The sound of Tutanekai’s flute was the signal for her to join him, but when she went to desert her village she found the canoes drawn up beyond her reach. Encouraged by fairy voices, however, she plunges into the lake and swims across to her lover’s village, ever having for her guidance the flute-song of Tutanekai. Alfred Hill, who was born at Wellington, played cornet solos at Martin Simonsen’s operatic concerts at the age of nine, at the age of 14 was orchestral leader at Charles Harding’s Grand Opera Company. He entered Leipsic Conservatorium at 16. remaining there five years. It was later when he returned to Wellington, and was conducting the Wellington Orchestral Society for four years, that “Hinemoa” was performed at the Wellington Exhibition, and later by the Royal Philharmonic Society of Sydney. Other works by Mr. Alfred Hill, who is now connected with the New South Wales State Conservatorium, and who, incidentally, once conducted the Royal Auckland Choir, are as follow: “Scotch Sonata,” for violin and piano; “Tapu” (a Maori opera), Maori Symphony, Maori String Quartet, many songs, including the wellknown “Waiata Poi” and several lyric productions, such as “The Rajah of Shivapore,” “Lady Dolly,” “A Moorish Maid,” and “Giovanni.”

For the production of “Hinemoa” on Thursday the following soloists have been selected; Hinemoa, Miss Alma McGruer; Tiki, Mr. Lambert Harvey; Tutanekai, Mr. Barry Coney; Tohunga, Mr. Frank Sutherland.

MUSIC DRAMA

WAGNER LEAVES MODERN COMPOSER COLD STRAVINSKY’S OPINION Speaking about opera in general, Stravinsky, the modern composer, said: “Music drama, exalted as it was by Wagner, leaves me utterly indifferent. Wagner makes music of the drama; I make drama of the music. Without any intention to belittle Wagner I must confess that I find his compositions unimportant. I admire Verdi though his last works, ‘Otello’ and ‘Falstaf’. leave me cold. “Beethoven attracts me even less, hut I like Bach and Mozart, and, strange though it may sound, Weber also. Naturally it is not the latter’s romanticism that impresses me but his technique and instrumentation. “I also admire Glinka and Tschaikowsky. ‘Boris Godunoff,’ however, doesn’t appeal to me, perhaps, because it is music drama. I keep my former teacher, Rimsky-Korsa-koff, in pleasant and affectionate remembrance, but I confess that I don’t care for his music. “There is one thing in music I dislike more than romanticism, and that is eroticism, as it is found in the works of Scriabin, whose talents are, in my opinion, very moderate. I had better not speak about the moderns. With every respect to a few who are talented, it seems to me that nothing startling has been written. However, Xam an optimist, and do not fear a ‘crisis’ in opera.” Schubert Contest Won By Swedish Composer “THE PARLIAMENT OF MUSIC” A Swedish musician, Kurt Atterberg, who conducts the Stockholm Orchestra, has been declared the winner of an international competition for the best symphonic work inspired by the genius of Franz Schubert. Walter D&mroach, the chairman of an international jury of 11 members, has announced that his Symphony in C Major wins the SIO,OOO prize for “beauty of melody and appropriateness of theme.” Atterberg is a native of Gothenburg, Sweden. He studied in Germany and has composed many symphonies and orchestral suites. At present he holds the conductorship of the Stockholm Orchestra, and is president of the Swedish Society of Musical Composers. Works by Professor Franz Schmidt, of Austria, and Czeslaw Marek, of Poland, were next in merit. The prizewinning symphony will he recorded by the Columbia Gramophone Company, which sponsored the contest, and will later be broadcast by radio throughout America and Europe. The success of this contest has inspired the committee to>set about the establishment of a “Parliament of Music,” which will adjudicate a new competition for the International Year Music Prize to be offered annually from 1929 to 1939. The Columbia Company has guarat*teed a $50,000 prize annually during this period. The first award will be made at the end of next year. The adjudication committee will consist of 90 members, three from each of the 10 zones into which the world has been divided for the purposes of the competition. It is hoped that this institution will do for music internationally what the Nobel pr-zes have done for other <* £HKj»