AGE OF MUSIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1052, 16 August 1930, Page 11 (Supplement)

AGE OF MUSIC

Subsidies Should Be Paid By State A CULTURAL ADVANCE There has never been an age in the history of the world in which the love and pursuit of music has been so marked. America, with its civilisation only some three hundred and fifty years old, now possesses the finest symphony orchestras in the world. Where roved the Red Indian with his primitive flute, three centuries or less ago, now exist orchestras capable of interpreting the works of the Masters superbly. Nor has Europe been backward. Here in the creative home of most of the music of distinction, appreciation has never been keener, so much so that the people accept it as an axiom that the State and the municipality should subsidise the great orchestral and operatic organisations. . . . And why should that not be the case In New Zealand? . . . This country, once a leader in social legislation, is ripe for a cultural advance. The general standard of education is high, but we are so far only on the threshold of music’s enchantment.

Science is doing much to prepare the way, but the cultivation of mechanised music is not the true way. It only whets the appetite for the real thing. New Zealand needs symphony orchestras to raise the standard of taste. With such organisations visits of great artists and great conductors would be encouraged, and so wou.d be provided that intellectual refreshment and exaltation which makes life so much more worth while. . . . The lure of good music is one of the most fascinating things imaginable. ... Its cultivation repays one a thousandfold.