FROM A ROOFTOP COMES SWEET SINGING

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 20, 10 November 1939, Page 11

FROM A ROOFTOP COMES SWEET SINGING

Schola Cantorum To Feature. In Concert At Exhibition Studio

oo ton’s tallest buildings comes a musical idea which is rapidly attaining a stature equivalent, in the New Zealand musical world, to the elevated position of its place of birth. Stanley Oliver came to New Zealand from Canada five years ago to discover a climate ideally suited to the production of mellow voices, scope for his keen interest in the best of choral singing, and a " penthouse," as he ‘calls it, which makes the best a studio on the roof of one of Welling"studio he has ever had. In Montreal the study of the most advanced choral work was his most absorbing interest. In Wellington he has developed a wider field in his teaching, but retains his special interest as a hobby. Out of his experience and enthusiasm has developed New Zealand’s Schola Cantorum, a group in the very finest tradition of choral singing. Dr. Malcolm Sargent was Convinced Their first production, given three years ago, was enough to convince Dr. Malcolm Sargent, who conducted them, that here he had found singing which would rank in the first class in any European capital. Later, Michael Head heard them, and said, as an independent observer, that the New Zealand Schola Cantorum was equal to anything of its type he had heard. They have broadcast before, but they do not broadcast often, and listeners who have not heard them should definitely not miss the programme to be broadcast by 2YA from the Exhibition Studio on the night of Tuesday, November 14. When they have heard this concert they will want to hear more of the choir, and perhaps to know what its unusual name means. Range Extended "Schola Cantorum" originally meant schools for "sacred polyphony and good liturgical music," as Pope Pius X. used the term in his Motu Proprio in 1903. But the scholas have now developed to cover a wider range of music. In New York, the Schola Cantorum is relative to the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. As the Orchestra absorbs the latest and best in symphonic work, so the Schola Cantorum covers the best in choral work. It can supply small choirs for special occasions or assemble its full forces to sing with the Orchestra. Back to the Fourth Century The exact tradition of the church schools of singing is only maintained by such choirs as York Minster, which dates from 627 A.D. The Rome Schola Cantorum was established by the Church of ‘Rome in the fourth century. In Wellington, the tradition is maintained in that the choir does not train for concert work. It studies as it pleases and plays as it pleases, for it is a financial entity as well as a musical entity and can afford: to be independent. Although its aims are unusually high, it receives excellent public support on the few occasions on which it does perform. It varies the tradition in that its scope extends beyond church music. The compact group cannot achieve the scale of brilliance a full orchestra can bring to the performance of a major symphony, or a full choir to the singing of "The Messiah"; but it can achieve far greater technical brilliance in detail. Strictly limited to its 26 members, because of the necessity for maintaining a strict balance in the parts, the Wellington Schola Cantorum enjoys, and makes the best possible use of this advantage.

"Dona Nobis Pacem " Accompaniments are usually played by nine strings, although for major works, such as Vaughan Williams’s

"Dona Nobis Pacem," the NBS supplied a larger orchestra when the first New Zealand performance was broadcast by the choir this year.. Another first performance will be given by the choir with Thomas Wood’s "Daniel and the Lions," at present in preparation. Only five months ago the BBC gave this work its first hearing. Vaughan Williams’s "Flos campi" is another outstanding composition in the choir’s library. Rated by critics as one of the most difficult choral compositions in the last two decades, it uses the voices and the instruments as a symphony composer uses his orchestra-there are no words. Vaughan Williams is one among a number of modern composers who supply with their work alter native accompaniments for the use of groups such as the Wellington Schola, which cannot make use of any score for a large orchestra. Outstanding Programme The concert programme from the Exhibition Studio on November 14 will be built round a Bach family theme. Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra*will open it with Bach’s "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor." The Schola Cantorum will break in with a modern interpretation of the old idiom in two songs from E. J. Moeran’s "Elizabethan Songs of Springtime," and Holst’s "Of One that is so Fair," and return to the old composers with Willbye’s madrigal, "Lady When I Behold," and two choruses from Purcell’s " Dido and Aeneas," Zillah and Ronald Castle will carry the theme to its climax with the first performance in New Zealand of " The Music of the Bach Family." played on ine struments of the period: recorder, violin, and virginal. Their part of the programme will be: "Pastorale," by Johann Christian Bach; " Fuga," by Wilhelm Friedeman Bach; "La Complaisante," by Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach; and " Presto," by Johann Sebastian Bach.