The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1939. THE NEGLECT OF MUSIC

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 41, 18 February 1939, Page 8

The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1939. THE NEGLECT OF MUSIC

ri-j the interest taken in brass bands and in pipe bands it must be admitted that music is being neglected nowadays. Sir Thomas Beecham, addressing the Incorporated Society oE Musicians upon the neglect of music and musicians in England, paid tribute to the “praiseworthy concentration on musical education’’ but deplored the lot, of thousands of students who, having submitted themselves to the highly-organised and efficient system of teaching music in England, emerge from it fully equipped to put their gifts and education at their country’s service only to find that there is no hope of employment. Their lot has become infinitely worse during this century through the arrival of mechanised entertainment. The films and the wireless make an excellent contribution to the aniusem -nt of the people, and it is to the credit of 8.8. C. that it gives valuable aid to musicians. But the total of mechanism has been greatly to limit the field of the artist and it is difficult for the artists to continue to function in sufficient numbers to make a sufficient impression upon the public consciousness. The suggestion has been made that the State should subsidise music as is done in many continental countries, that is by sustaining Stale orchestras, operas and ballets, but somehow this method of assisting art has never found favour with the English publie. If may be possible, through the broadcasting services, to do more to assist local artists. There arc some “artists” on the radio nowadays who should never have been permitted to abuse Ihe air wit h I heir uncultured and insufficiently-trained voices, while the word desecration is the only appropriate term to be applied to the efforts of not a few so-ealled artists. Some people already find broadcasting a bane of existence, and they are mostly cultured people. The air has been abused to such an extent that a place for sweet sleep and quiet breathing appears to be non-existent. Cannot the noble army of music teachers rise to the occasion and smite the Amalakites of vulgarity? The year is about to commence for the music teachers who arc still in the field. Are they going forward as they have done before to do the same old tasks from the five-finger exercises up to students’ concerts? If they are, then they not only deserve extinction, but they arc courting it. They have lacked imagination in their work. Where would the artists of the brush have been to-day had they continued in the tradition of, say, Constable or Van Dyke? People would have grown used to such treatments and would long ago have ceased to be interested. It, is precisely because painting has been able to produce innovations that it has kept its public. Sargent was a great painter, but Augustus John came along and refused to worship at the same altar, the result: conflict, argument, interest. Musicians should attempt something which is new, which will compel interest. They must think upon wider lines if they wish to hold public interest. There are enough musicians in Xew Zealand to prepare for a National Musical Festival, say a Handel Festival at the Centenary Exhibition, and if they prepared their pupils to take part in such a festival the students would have something to work for and something very much worth while to be remembered afterwards. Some years ago a Wanganui Choir was organised and taken to Wellington, and sang to an almost empty audience. Those who were present, however, comprised some able critics, and they declared that they did not think it possible to produce such excellent work as was performed to the empty spaces of the Wellington Town Hall. The adventure fell down on organisation, but it was an artistic achievement. Could not the teachers get together and engage in some cooperative effort amongst themselves for the sake of their art, and for the purpose of holding waning public interest? Just as the films from time to time have to stage a spectacular pageant, so music requires similar treatment. People for all their individualism are still influenced by the mass mind; it is that fact which has escaped the musicians.