"HERE IS A REAL TENOR AT LAST"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 44, 26 April 1940, Page 20

"HERE IS A REAL TENOR AT LAST"

EDDLE NASH is a Londoner. H Although he can claim. descent from Heddles who were not Londoners and from Nashes who came from the home of "Beau," he still has all a Londoner’s brightness and originality. It was not, therefore, so surprising when he mixed golf, boxing and tennis in his discussion of voice production {and divers other matters) with The Listener soon after his arrival in New Zealand with Isobel Baillie and Gladys Ripley to take part in the Centennial Music Festival. . "The Mad Englishman " "Tt’s just like a good stroke at golf," said Mr, Nash, aftér demonstrating the free movement of his chest and vocal muscles--while he -skipped from one octave to another. "Or like tennis. Or boxing-" he swung a straight left"Tt’s all in the follow through — no tenseness at all. Easy, like that... ." But it has taken more -than facility of voice production to make Nash a singer of Continental repute, respected even in Italy, the home of opera, although there they do not call him "the mad Englishman." He is also gifted with an exceptionally accurate ear, not only for tone, but also for inflection and language. He sings easily in four languages, although Italian is the only one he is able to speak or read fluently. The others he sings from knowledge of basic sounds and from an expert flair for copying those sounds,

But those who know something of dialects in the British Isles may appreciate that it is an even greater feat for him to sing naturally also in Scots, Welsh, with an Irish brogue, or in any county according to the local language. He is taken in Scotland for a Scotsman, and his brogue makes him Irish in Eire. He can even sing in Welsh, and this might be taken for the greatest feat of all if it had not been for the fact that he has sung in Hebrew to Jews and been mistaken for a Jew. And Now Maori He is going to enjoy himself here with the Maori language and its soft purity of vowel sounds. Mainly because of the language, he said, Italians had become a nation of singers and musicians. Theirs was a language which demanded musical treatment. Latterly commercialism had tended to spoil the love of music in native Italy, but they still had their great tradition. Maori seemed similar to him. He demanded, in fact, that the stricken Listener representative should recite some Maori to him. He would guarantee to copy it faithfully. "Paekakariki," and "Pahiatua" were all the Maori ready for this peremptory summons, and Mr. Nash proved his point by pronouncing them very much better than his mentor, or indeed than many Maoris these days. Caruso Started It Natural ability at music and voice production was not enough to make a

singer of Heddle Nash’s quality. Before the war he had been listening one night with his family to a record of Caruso’s. "Why don’t you sing like that?" said his father to Heddle. "T can," said Heddle. This bravado had to be justified, so he set about the job. Not long after, Marie Brema, judge at the Blackheath Conservatoire, where he won a scholarship, said: "Here is a real tenor at last." But the real tenor went off to the war. After the war, his wife persuaded him to start where he had left off. He secured some engagements, but his real chance came when a friend.advanced the money necessary for:him to go to Italy and study under Guiseppe Borgatti. He started all over again. For he sang not a note. Five hours daily he did nothing but vocalise. He studied every reaction of the nerves and muscles used in good singing. He worked, to make the story short, five hours daily for 18 months to reduce the art of singing to a formula that would suit his mind. In the end he got it, and he says now that there has been no satisfaction in life so great for him, and nothing that has led him to greater happiness. He is a specialist, but he is restless to conquer other fields, and no doubt would if he had the time. He wants to study the production of the spoken voice, points out that few singers speak pleasantly and few good speakers sing well, He wants to know why, and-hopes.

some day to find out why if he can find some elocutionist who will permit him to teach him singing. Lively Sense of Humour. He would try anything, if he had_half a chance, if only to find out how it is done. "I don’t know how I’d get on at your job," he said, and seemed immediately to be turning over in his» mind the possibilities of working out a formula for journalism. He is the real enthusiast, but keeps behind all his serious application to his work a lively sense of humour, a bright Londoner’s wit, and a compelling interest in everything that goes on around