THE GOOD OLD DAYS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 251, 14 April 1944, Page 12

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

MUSIC AND THE STAGE IN NEW ZEALAND: The Record of a Century of Entertainment. By Maurice Hurst. Published by Charles Begg & Co. ERE the second part of the title placed first, and the subtitle made to read "The Stage and Music in New Zealand," the book would be more accurately described, and no one would be disappointed. Whereas to open its pages expecting to find the growth of New Zealand’s musical and dramatic endeavour discussed---as for instance similar subjects were discussed in the Centennial Surveys-is to look in vain for something the author never intended to provide. To Mr. Hurst’s ears great names from old advertisements are music: H. B. Irving, Melba, Heifetz, Santley, Marie Tempest, Pavlova, Boucicault, Allan Wilkie, H. M. Stanley, Mark Twain, and Paderewski are a selection from his crescendo of memories, and the words "to mention but a few" are his triumphant final chords. In fact, the book expressly recommends itself to those many who will revel in memories of the "good old days," when an editor risked far worse than a libel action (Mr. Hurst records the editor of the Otago Workman having been horsewhipped in his own office by the cast of the London Gaiety Co.); when the Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Victoria’s son, but a capable violinist withal, "created quite a furore" by leading the orchestra at a concert in Auckland; when "Cleopatra" performed with live snakes and alligators, and "The Modern Milo" gave interpretations of Greek and Roman statuary which were "essentially chaste, for true beauty is always chaste." Entertainment, then, and not "Music and the Stage" is the subject of this book, and an unbounded one it is. But as Mr. Hurst says: "In a narrative of this kind it is necessary that a drastic selection should be made of the material available." So no mention is made, for instance, of the Little Theatre at Canterbury College, which, with its cyclorama and its tradition of endeavour was one of Professor Shelley’s legacies to Christchurch; of Music in New Zealand, a periodical which once flourished on these shores; or of Thomas Matthews, a former leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, whose stimulus Auckland musicians will remember for some time. This is "drastic selection" indeed, especially when the author has also found it necessary to discharge his obligations to the NBS String Orchestra, Maurice Clare, Douglas Lilburn, the Don Cossacks, the Centennial Music Competitions and other such eminently discussible subjects by the phrase "mention must be made." The reader may feel he is amply compen‘sated, however, by the many lists of musical comedies and vaudevilles with all their leading players, the pages devoted to Pollard’s opera companies, the details of Percy Grainger’s strange behaviour, and the news that Peter ' Dawson sang Bach and Brahms "and (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) made the public like -them," while ae Kreisler "spoke excellent Engish." Certain pieces of really interesting information will reward the reader who is still hard to please. "The New Zealand Polka," for instance, was composed by Harriet Barlow in Wellington in 1858, and* must have been one of our earliest local compositions. And in 1899 Haydn’s Creation drew the biggest audience Dunedin had ever seen, all the big "shows" of previous years notwithstanding, a piece of evidence that suggests there really would be a story in the musical ground Mr. Hurst has left unsearched. But in general, the inside is like the title on the cover — first things come last, last things first. In the title the teal clue to the matter in hand is in the afterthought. In the book, the author’s picture of his period has a foreground of ephemera, while fascinating speculations hide behind the almost inadvertent references to early silent films and their audiences, the Verbruggen Symphony, the Gonsalez Opera Company ("some performances were very good indeed"), Madame Albani, the Sheffield Choir (200 strong), Mark Twain, General Booth, and others of whom "mention must be made." Never mind, the book is full of interesting things, and will offend no one, for it has praise for all and not a word of criticism. And when the day comes for someone to write the real story of Music and the Stage in New Zealand, it will be found indispensable. In the meantime, its pages make a good evening’s entertainment, at a price, 8/6, that is not unreasonable in 1944 for a book which, in addition to 112 pages of text, has about 30 illustrations,