MUSIC CHARMS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1056, 21 August 1930, Page 8

MUSIC CHARMS

JN order to allay the anxiety of many people who are aware that Music Week is a national effort and who therefore are doubtless wondering what Waikikamookau has done in connection with this important function, I can state right here that the occasion did not find Waikikamookau wanting. I have no desire to discourage the Auckland Music Week Committee, but I think I may say without exaggeration that its programmes have" nothing whatever on those arranged by my Aunt, Miss Martha Finchley. Take Monday night’s concert in the Municipal Wool-shed for example. To start with, the “house” was packed. From the exclusive boxes and stalls to the 4d stand, orthrough-the-window view, not a seat was unoccupied. In fact, to make more room, the benzine had been removed from the boxes and both horses taken from the stalls. Amid frantic enthusiasm, my Aunt opened the proceedings with a spirited rendering of the echo song with trombone accompaniment. It was unfortunate that Sam, who was playing the part of the Echo outside the window, got hiccoughs halfway through the song and had to stop and drink a glass of beer upside down. It was still more unfortunate that he spilt the beer in doing so.

The next item was a pianoforte solo, “Chopsticks,” by little Emma Grubbe, aged 9. This was received sympathetically and willing Lands carried her out when she threw a fit during the second movement. The selections from “Home, Sweet Home,” rendered by the Waikikamookau Municipal Band were greatly appreciated. The subsequent assault and battery of the Ocarina by the Second Cornet was merely due to an audible remark by the former to the effect that the Second Cornet couldn’t blow past his adenoids even if he used a power pump. A charming duet, “ ’Twas Only an Old Beer Bottle,” by the massed voices of the Municipal Choir, was followed by a delightful falsetto solo by Sam, “March of the Dead Marines.” As an encore number he sang that lilting old Scottish air: O wad th’ poutin' skeekit sair A.n tccel fccht ocht th 3 rabbic , Ye canna ca ’ th * corbie inair Sae gie maun a* th * crabbie. This song was originally written for bagpipes accompaniment, so it runs entirely on one note. Then came the great hit of the evening—my Aunt and Sam in the love scene from the opera “Wriggletto.” I have searched carefully through the programmes arranged by the Auckland Music Week Committee but I can find absolutely nothing comparable to this. As the hero who confesses his undying love for the heroine and then suddenly swallows his chewing-gum and chokes to death before her horrified gaze, Sam was great. If he hadn’t accidently coughed the chewing gum across the hall he would have been really superb.

His dying rendering, punctuated by chokes, of that passionate aria, “La donna auto mobile,’* was as good as anything heard at Covent Garden Market, while the obvious emotion of the audience when my Aunt sang her bass solo, “O mia tomato obbligato • tiletto,” is sufficient evidence of her dramatic ability. It may be safely said that the number was a howling success and the appreciation of the audience may be judged from thj fact that a large crowd gathered quietly outside the stage door after the show, and waited patiently for my Aunt and Sam to appear. Fortunately, however, they managed to make a clean get-away by a side window.