HE HAS A NEW KIND OF MUSICAL JOB

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 320, 10 August 1945, Page 14

HE HAS A NEW KIND OF MUSICAL JOB

"Making It Possible For People To Do The Things They Want To Do"

MAN who has just accepted a new job has to be prepared to explain it to his friends, Say why he has taken it, and describe what he will be doing from now on. In the normal course of events this is not so very hard, though it may try his patience for a time. But if the job itself is new, and no one has done it before, what then? If he has been appointed to a public position and everyone wants to know what his job is, he has to think hard, and work out some sort of answer. Owen Jensen, of Auckland, was in just this position when The Listener interviewed him in Wellington the other day. For ten years he has been studio accompanist at 1YA. For four years he has edited and published a musical journal called Music Ho, which recently went into print after having been cyclostyled until then. For three years he has organised lunch-hour music recitals every week ‘as a voluntary’ service to Auckland’s musical life. Since 1932 he has been associated with the W.E.A., giving regular lectures for the last four years or so. For the last three years he has held together and conducted a small string orchestra. And he has been all this in addition to being a busy music teacher. Now he has accepted a new job. When this interview appears in print he will be in office as Specialist: Music Tutor in Adult Education for the Auckland University District. Naturally wé asked him quite bluntly what he proposes to do about it. A Pamphlet First Mr. Jensen, in spite of an irrepressible sense of humour, managed a serious answer. First, he wants to draw attention to the resources existing in the community that enable musical people to express themselves. This may mean writing some sort of preliminary pamphlet. Then he will get down to busi-ness-‘"creating facilities for the fulfilment of felt needs," to use the phrase he had thought out as the most convenient and comprehensive definition. But there are two words in the full title of his job that Mr. Jensen likes to modify before he goes on talking about it. One is tutor and the other is educafion. Actual tutoring will be a very small part of his job, though there will be lectures. And he doesn’t feel ft will be his job to "educate," but rather to make it possible for musical people to do the things they want to do, and do them better-assuming they want to. How It Will Be Done Wherever possible, he will work through existing facilities. Like England’s Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA), he does not intend to set up new groups or organisations where such things already exist and function to the ends he seeks. In the city of Auckland, a good deal of his work will probably be done in conjunction with the W.E.A., but not necessarily

all of it. He may take music to factories for workers in the lunch-hour, probably records at first, and live performers when that is possible. Lectures of the kind he has already been giving will probably continue. Some form of "box scheme," supplemented by visits with performers, may be used for country districts, which Mr. Jensen regards as a very important part of his musical diocese. And in general he will operate in the belief that — participation by the people themselves is a great help towards appreciation of music. This doesn’t mean that he will insist on regarding everyone who comes to his class as a potential choir-member or string-player, and produce a low standard of performance for the dubious sake of "Music-making." It does mean that wherever he can discover a group with some ability and keenness for singing and playing he will try to help them to develop it. But these are all mere ideas, Mr. Jensen says. He finds the job so big in its scope that he doesn’t really know where to begin, and therefore any plans he mentions at this stage are wholly tentative, and all subject to modification when he discovers what is really needed. "I certainly don’t want to impose a pattern of preconceived ideas on the work," he said. "I’d much rather the job took the shape it suggests to me as I get to know it." Town and Country But two of his ambitions seem to be already clear in his mind. In rural communities he wants to try and fulfil what he thinks is a natural "felt need" for ‘music of one sort or another, which is not gatisfied at present. And in the cities hé wants to take up the musical ability that is in the post-secondary-school groups, who at present tend to lose what they gain at school, for want of anywhere to make use of it when they leave. Mr. Jensen perceives what has become apparent in some other parts of the country (Dunedin, for instance): that it is only half the job to introduce music into the school curriculum for the majority, unless arrangements are made for some organised use of that education in the years that follow secondary schooling. The day Mr. Jensen was informed of his appointment, he called on P. Martin Smith, Director of Adult Education in Auckland. It so happened that on this very day a letter had arrived from a group of people in Tauranga who had come together and wanted to develop their interest in modern art, literature, and music. They wanted to know how they could get information and guidance. ‘Such inquiries will undoubtedly multiply once there is someone whose job it is to specialise in dealing with them. And Mr. Jensen fully expects. that his job will not be a matter of deciding what _ to do, but of deciding what to leave out. His district will a from Kaitaia to Taumarunui. (continued on next page) ™

(continued from previous page) This is the first appointment of a fulltime specialist tutor in Adult Education. The subject of music was chosen because it so happens that music has gone ahead fairly well in Auckland. Mr. Jensen’s W.E.A. music classes there have been large and enthusiastic, his lunch-hour music has become an institution, and his string orchestra has done some govd work. The lessons learnt from this experiment will be applied to future experiments in other specialised subjects. But although it is a job that has not been done before, it may, not turn out to be very strange to the man who has been chosen for it. Rather it looks as if he will now be able to apply himself completely to doing what he has been trying to do in one way or another in his spare time-what there has been of it-for several years. And those who know what this has meant to the musical life of Auckland will hope for a lot from the new arrangement. Listeners to 1YA will hear Owen Jensen giving two talks on "Music Today" in the series "The Arts To-dav" at 7.15 p.m. on Thursday, August 16, and Thursday, August 23.