BOY SOPRANO INTO BARITONE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 65, 20 September 1940, Page 17

BOY SOPRANO INTO BARITONE

Lex Macdonald on the Air from 4YA

ing musical geniuses ever captured the public imagination in New Zealand as much as a 12-year-old boy who used to sing in Dunedin. No other local artist was ever in such demand for concerts. Few other local concerts turned away the crowds that had to stay outside Dunedin’s Town Hall on the night of the farewell concert given the lad before he left to make gramophone records in Australia. e NLY a few outstanding visitMaster Lough, of Brompton Oratory, had captivated the hearts of gramophone owners. Here was a New Zealand boy with the same sort of clear soprano voice, and a cormmand of technique which his thousands of "fans" claimed outrivalled the singing of the famous English boy soprano. Lex Macdonald was famous. Much has happened since then. The boy with the angelic voice has won a University Blue at tennis, and is now busy lowering his golf handicap as near par as he can get it (it’s down to 12 at the moment). But he still sings, and listeners to 4YA regularly hear his fine baritone. His next broadcast will be heard from Dunedin’s Station 4YA at 8.10 p.m. on Saturday, September 28.

He Started Young Lex Macdonald was about six years old when he began to sing at small concerts, but did not think about learning singing until he was 12 years old. He became a pupil of Ernest Drake’s, and soon developed as a boy soprano, the natural voice range for boys of his age. Two beautiful anthems have been associated with boy-soprano voices since

choirs first sang them: "Hear My Prayer" (which includes the passage "Oh for the Wings of a Dove"), and "I Waited for the Lord." These young Macdonald determined to master, with what effect listeners in’ New Zealand and Australia, and indeed overseas as well, still remember. His first public performance of any importance was given during Ernest Drake’s recital in 1930. Twice he entered for the Dunedin competitions in the open class under 18, and was first both times. Exciting Times The years 1930 and 1931 were exciting times for him. He sang at every local concert of importance, and was the sensation of the moment, singing the part specially written for a boy-soprano voice into Maunder’s Cantata, "The Martyrs." His fame quickly spread. The Wellington’ and Christchurch Harmonic Societies engaged him for concerts. He sang for the Timaru Orchestral Society, with the Invercargill Male Choir, and with most of the Dunedin societies. In the end it was arranged that he should go to Australia to make _ recordings. More than 3000 people listened to his farewell concert in Dunedin Town Hall. Records in Sydney In Sydney he made six records, still much prized by gramophone owners. He broadcast for 2FC. Although he found, as he said recently to The Listener, that "music, as far as concerts were concerned, was as dead then in Sydney as it has now become in New Zealand." he had a successful stay there. He still broadcasts for 4YA, but regrets that singers do not appear so often before audiences as they used to.