MUSIC IN ENGLAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 875, 20 January 1930, Page 8

MUSIC IN ENGLAND

RESULTS AT SCHOOL FOR MENTAL DEFECTIVES DIRECTOR RETURNS The standard of music in England has improved -wonderfully during the past few years, and the number of good concerts one can hear in London now is unprecedented. These observations come from M r E. D. Douglas Taylor, Director of Music in Schools for New Zealand. li e returned by the Port Denison this morning after attending the Anglo. American musical conference i„ Switzerland, and studying the latest development of music in schools England.

Mr. Douglas Tavler considers that wireless, together with the music in schools movement, has done a creat deal to raise the standard of music in England today.

“The enthusiasm for music in London is wonderful.” he said. “Concerts are booked up for weeks ahead and one can hear two or three excel-’ lent orchestral concerts every week The new orchestra organised by the British Broadcasting Corporation was one of the finest I heard.” NO PRIZE MONEY The competitive element at festivals is being done away with, said Mr Douglas Tayler. Leading people" interested in the promotion of good music are trying to eliminate money prizes, and are aiming at combined wjork. As an instance of this, he mentioned that one county has been divided into five areas, and an annual festival is held each year. There are no prizes, and no individual competition, but the work is criticised by a competent judge.

Mr. Douglas Tayler agrees that this scheme might be followed in New Zealand. He says that one of the greatest problems of the artistic future of the Dominion is the development of the music in the rural districts. “I should like to see, all through' the country, the formation of amateur arts associations, in which all the people who have artistic leanings of any- kind could foster them,” he said. “The senior scholars from the schools could join these associations, and thus continue their artistic education. Then, once a year, they could be gathered together in the different centres for a festival which would be noncompetitive.

One of the most important things Mr. Douglas Tayler noticed in England was the growth of instrumental class teaching. The children are taught in the mass, and some wonderful results have been achieved. He said that he heard some wonderful children’s orchestras in the London schools. TEACHING MENTAL DEFECTIVES “I visited one school for mental defectives in London where wonderful results have been achieved through the use of music and eurythmics combined,” continued Mr. Douglas Tayler. “What I actually saw were children of the lowest grade who have benefited to such an extent that 87 per cent of them were now employable, and 25 iter cent, xvere able to go on to normal schools. These children are just above the asylum grade. The results obtained at this school, which is in the East End of London, have not nearly been equalled in other schools where less attention is given to music and eurythmics.” Mr. Douglas Tayler explained that when the children start at the school, they begin by being made to respond to the beating of a drum. The talkies, he says, have not affected music to any great extent in London, and the orchestras are being reinstated in the motion picture houses. Mr. Douglas Tayler attended one of the Delius festival concerts. The most beautiful thing he heard during his trip was the Brahms “Requiem” in St. Saviour’s Church, Suffolk, where the choir was accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra.