THE GROWTH OF A FLOWER

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 80, 3 January 1941, Page 41

THE GROWTH OF A FLOWER

By

R

6 OU want to know, and : New Zealand with you, of Cushla de Lange," said Adolf Spivakovsky. "Listen, my friend, and I will tell you." A grand piano and, wall-wide bookcase crammed with row upon row of bound scores of great composers dominated the music room. Lotte Lehmann, Elizabeth Rethberg, Kirsten Flagstad, Alexander Kipnis, Richard Tauber and others of world fame looked on with

kindly eyes from the photographs, each with a warm greeting for "my dear colleague," "my dear friend Adolf." "And how long will it take for Cushla to become a great singer?" continued my host. "I will paint a picture for you: "A beautiful flower, how does it grow? The gardener first prepares the soil; it must not be too hot a place nor too cold. The sun must shine so much and not too much. The seed is placed in the ground at the right depth. Then the rain must come and the sun must shine. The nurtured seed mothers the plant, the plant emerges from the ground, at first weak, then stronger and stronger. In due

season the flower grows and opens to a perfect flower. But through the growing, the gardener tends the springing plant, nurses it to fruition; then comes the joy of a perfect bloom." His words raced to keep pace with his analogy. Two Great Gifts ' "You will think, my friend, that I have-what you call-beaten about the bush, is it not, trying to build up these pictures for you; but no, it is my way to make you understand. The Good Lord gave her a beautiful voice, and a splendid natural talent for music is another great gift to her."

"But, if she be so gifted, why isn’t she a great singer already?" timidly ventured. "One moment, and I shall tell you," said he at once; evidently I was required only to listen. " Before Cushla came to me as a pupil, she had been trained as a _ contralto! Why? I do not know. All she had learnt had first to be eradicated. What a handicap for a singer and for her Maestro! Long, arduous and intense study followed until her old technique had fled for ever. Now, after this opening phase, our work together is producing excellent progress as she is using to the full her intelligence and talent. "You see, it is not given to all of us to have the gift of a ‘voice’ conferred on us at birth purely as a normal

heritage. I have no means of teaching singing to a person born without a ‘voice’ or to develop in him artistic qualities which form no part of his innate sense of beauty and emotion, A Living Organism "The voice is a living organism, a product of the harmonious functioning of certain organs; if we free these organs from all hindrances retarding their correct action we reach the first step lead-

ing to further development. The correct and well developed tone must become a sense of feeling; a sense of touch as sensitive as that of a virtuoso. The more natural we remain and the more strictly we avoid injuring any of the essentially delicate producing organs, the quicker we reach our goal; a noble, well sounding and free tone. "Each singer needs specialised guid: ance, and I am _ cultivating Cushla’s musical taste as well as her musical and mechanical training in order to train her critical judgment and develop in every way her eventual independence that she will become a great artist." "But, who can set a time for this?" he asked almost fiercely. "True, I am the Maestro, and Cushla is an earnest and gifted pupil. But we must work and work, each to our utmost power. 1 can make no time, a month, a yeah what you will. But I do know this "- his words fell gravely and sincerely"Tf she continues with me, I shall one day present her to the world as a great singer."