MUSIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 500, 1 November 1928, Page 14

MUSIC

(By

F.1.R.)

A trio has been formed in New York by Toschia Seidel (violinist), Evsei Bdloussoff (’cellist), and Emanuel Bay (pianist). ... Next year William Murdoch, the celebrated Australian pianist, will embark on a tour of Europe, the United States of America, Australia and New Zealand. Murdoch was to have come to Australia this year, but his tour was postponed.

Advice has been received in New Zealand that the talented young Timaru violinist, Mr. Rees McConachy, has been accepted as a pupil by Mr. Arthur Hartmann, the eminent New York violinist. So impressed was Mr. Hartmann with the young New Zealanders’ playing that he has taken him for six months at halffees. In response to a public appeal, £240 was raised publicly in Timaru to send Mr. McConachy overseas. His playing has been very favourably reported on by Heifetz and other prominent violinists.

The English prima donna, Eva Turner, whose singing at Covent Garden was one of the outstanding events of the opera season, has left London on her return to Italy, where she first appeared on the operatic stage. She has signed a contract to sing in German opera in Chicago in the autumn, and will soon go to Germany for special language study.

Maori Music at Town Hall This Evening Alfred Hill's Cantata “ifinemoa "to be Sung, NATIVES WILL ASSIST The Auckland Choral Society’s proposal to put on a complete Maori programme on the occasion o£ its presentation of Alfred Hill’s cantata “Hinemoa” Was certainly a bright idea. This evening will see its fruition when, in addition to a performance of Hill’s popular work, a programme of Maori songs will be given by Maori boys from St. Stephen’s College and girls from Queen Victoria College at the Town Hall. Such well-known numbers as Alfred Hill’s “Waiata Foi” and “Waiata Maori,” and Hemi Piripata’s “Pokare Kare” will be sung by Mrs.

Harold King, Mr. Barry Coney and Mr. Thompson Waipouri respectively. Items by the Maori boys and girls will be “Titi-Torea” and “Huri-Huri” (Stick Throwing Games) arranged by Hemi Piripata; Princess Te Rangi Pai’s Maori cradle song, “Hine E Hine” and “Moe Mai E Hine”; and the traditional rhythmic shouting song, “Song of the Locust.” In keeping with the programme the National Anthem will be sung in Maori. A programme such as this should prove a very popular attraction.

What is described by the German Press as a big step toward the trustification of the piano industry in the Fatherland was taken in Berlin recently when representatives of 53 firms, including Bechstein, Bluthner, Steinweg, and Ibach organised the “Community of Interests of the German Pianoforte and Harmonium Factories Stock Company,” with a capital of four million marks. The programme of the new combination covers practically everything but the management of the individual factories. Names of famous makes are to be preserved, but the practical business of rationalising production and distribution will be organised by the combine.

Queen’s Hall was well filled with a most enthusiastic audience for the recital by Florence Austral, the Australian singer, and John Amadio, the flautist. Florence Austral excelled herself in German Lieder, and displayed magnificent dramatic artistry in the Valkyrie call. Floral tributes and encores were numerous, there being seven insistent recalls. Amadio fully upheld his reputation as a preeminent flautist. Sandford Schlussel was a sympathetic pianist. Miss Naomi Whalley, the popular

Palmerston North soprano who appeared in Auckland last season, has been engaged to sing in “A Tale of Old Japan” for the Royal Wellington Choral Union on November 24, and in the Christchurch Harmonic Society’s performssiah” on December

ance of “The Mess

SCHOOL MUSIC Director’s New Scheme of Teaching RELATED TO LIFE The most important step yet taken in the development of the Education Department’s new scheme for musical teaching in the schools has just been made. This is the issue by the Department to all schools of Mr. E. Douglas Tayler’s scheme of school music related to life. The issue of this course means that Mr. Tayler, director .of musical education, has at last completed the task of devising a complete syllabus of musical instruction for use in his work. The curriculum is novel. Commencing with breathing, speech and ear-train-ing, it proceeds through easy stages to the teaching of musical forms. Novel features of it are lists of musical numbers illustrating geography, literature and history. Many poems set to music are given, and such things as ancient Chinese, Hindustani and Hebrew music, the song which Taillefer sang at the battle of Hastings, hymns of the Reformation, and the madrigals of Tudor days. The geographical list is designed to illustrate how climate moulded the character of men and brought forth different music.

Already, says Mr. Tayler, matters are improving. The appointment of musical instructors at the. four teachers’ training colleges will improve the technique of the teacher, who will be better equipped to deal with the child. The great need at the moment is for the child to be able to sight-read, and this can come only when the teachers are adequately trained. The foundation of the teaching to the children is the nursery rhymes, the singing games (“Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”), and the national songs. On these the rest is built.

A feature of the present work is the manner in which the schools are purchasing gramophones with departmental assistance. Many hundreds have already been installed. In addition, the department is financing the acquisition of the dulcitone (a small piano constructed from tuningforks, which cannot go out of tune) for schools which cannot afford pianos.