MUSIC FOR THE PEOPLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 607, 8 March 1929, Page 14

MUSIC FOR THE PEOPLE

COST A PROBLEM FOR CITY COUNCIL RECITALS AND CONCERTS In the face of heavy annual losses upon the organ recitals and municipal concerts, members of the Auckland City Council could not make up their minds last evening whether or not the functions should be curtailed, and further inquiries are to be made into the reasons why they have failed financially. The Finance Committee recom- j mended that the organ and band per- i formances for the coming season j should be distributed as given below: 1 Organ.—Six Saturday night perform- I anees in the Town Hall in conjunction ! with the Municipal Choir; 40 Sunday ( evening performances (organ): 1 carol ! concert in December; 3 (.say) recitals for | school children; sundry performances as required; total 50. Three additional night performances may be arranged with the town clerk if the Town Hall is not engaged. Municipal Band. —Ten Saturdav night performances in the Town Hall; 1 carol concert in December; 52 Zoological Park performances on Sunday afternoons; 8 Zoological Park performances on holidays (Boxing Day, etc.); 26 performances on summer evenings in various parks; total, 90. Five additional night performances may be arranged with the town clerk if the Town Hall is not engaged. "WE HAVE THE GOODS’’ The committee recommended also that the terms of engagement of the city organist should not be altered, that honorary organists were not required, and that the present arrangement in tuning the organ should remain. A report from Mr. Christopher Smith, bandmaster, indicated that broadcasting had affected the band concerts. He stoutly defended the value of the band’s service to the community. The city organist, Mr. Maughan Barnett, too, said broadcasting had created havoc in the concert world. Music in Auckland was passing through a period of depression, and a curtailment of the municipal concerts was desirable.

Mr. C. A. Eady suggested as a fourth recommendation that the management of concerts be entrusted to the Libraries Committee. It was scarcely fair, said Cr. Eady, to load the musicians with the details of management. “We have the goods but we want the selling media,” the councillor remarked.

“I don’t see why the city’s music should be relegated to the committee which has charge of Auckland’s museum, antiquities and curiosities,” said Cr. T. Bloodworth amid laughter.

In moving an amendment that the whole report be referred back for “serious” consideration, Cr. Bloodworth said he was greatly disappointed with the committee’s findings. ORGAN 13 POPULAR

Cr. Ellen Melville took exception to the suggestion that the committee had not given due consideration to the city’s music. Mr. J. A. C. Allum believed Cr. Bloodworth was not 100 per cent, serious in his proposal that non-paying concerts should be cut out. The council owed a. duty to the public in providing amenities such as music, the libraries and the art gallery. If someone could propose some practical alternative to the report it was worthy of the council’s investigation. They had no real right to go against a man so experienced as the city organist. “Our organ is like our buses—they are not paying,” Cr. W. H. Murray. (Cries of “We have no buses.”) “Well, we had anyhow, “I don’t see how the council can afford to carry on losing as at present.” Cr. Eady’s proposal was rejected. Cr. E. J. Phelan supported Cr. Bloodworth’s amendment.

“The organ is the most popular instrument in the world to-day,” declared Cr. Eady in opposing the return of the report to the committee. (Murmurs of incredulity.) “The sale of organ gramophone records is phenomenal,” said Cr. Eady. The city had an instrument worth £20,000 and it was only a question of providing suitable programmes and the people would attend. It had been a mistake to cut down advertising. The amendment was carried and the committee will give the report further consideration.