MUSIC FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 376, 6 September 1946, Page 12

MUSIC FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN

Tremendous Development in England, says Solomon

FTER a second talk with Solomon, this time in Wellington, we came away with a couple of small points cleared up; and in return, by a chance of conversation, we left Solomon in possession of something he hadn't known before. Solomon does not practise ten hours a day, as we had heard somewhere; and he is not a wrestling fan. So much, among other things, we found out from Solomon. And from us, Solomon learned at last how to pronounce Ngaio, the Christian name of a writer of detective fiction whom he now knows to be a New Zealander.

"T can’t remember what I would have called her," Solomon said. "I think everyone just says-‘Marsh’!" When we asked him about the ten-hours-a-day practice, Solomon said it was emazing how you got misquoted; and he ‘admitted that once for a special occasion he had practised about 17 hours a day for ten days. But, in ordinary going order, the usual thing was four or five hours’ work daily. And when we asked whether it was true that he was keen on wrestling, Solomoni said no, he had gone to the wrestling on:his first night in Wellington because he had nothing else to do, but he preferred boxing. He was very keen on box-ing-very keen on sport, golf, tennis. But | not wrestling-what he couldn’t understand was the way the women got all excited about it. * * * USIC in schools was the thing we had really gone to talk about with Solomon. Hearing about the time he played with the orchestra at his old | school (Rugby) and of other school concerts he had given, we went to ask him what was going on in English schools. He started by talking about a "tremend6éus development."

"First of all there are all these percussion bands in the kindergartens. Not only are the children learning to _ play their instruments in the right rhythm, but they take turns in conducting too-learning ‘dictatorship,’ if you like. "Then when they get older of course there’s the inclination towards either the piano or the violin, because there’s so often a piano in the home, and a lot of people have a violin in the family somewhere, and anyway those are the instruments a child can enjoy playing on his own. But’ nowadays, with all the children’s concerts that are on, there’s a keen demand for the instruments of the orch-estra-clarinet and oboe, for instance. The kids see the instruments in the orchestra and then want to take them up. So you have in quite a lot of schools a complete orchestra-or rather,’ a complete miniature orchestra. Of course you don’t always get the right balance-there are too many fiddles and not enough violas and so on, but it’s a good thing all the*same. Music’s becoming just as

normal a part of school life as, say, reading and writing and arithmetic." Here, Solomon had some questions to ask, about public schools. Had we the equivalent? We tried to explain the situation briefly, and Solomon went on, telling us that in the English public schools, orchestras were better off because you had the more affluent type of boy who could afford to buy his own instrument. School orchestras were therefore more common in private (or "public") schools than in Board schools. But in some cases, Board schools were getting them too. ; The frequency of children’s orchestral concerts, Solomon said, was training children to be first-class listeners.

HEN the visiting celebrity pianist, Solomon, was a small ‘child-he gave his first two concerts at’ the Queen’s Hall at the ages of eight and nine -the critics agreed then about his genius. But they were divided as to whether or not it was simply a genius for imitation. Was his performance, one asked, simply an exploitation of the imitative faculty? No, said another; mere imitation was impossible. We do not profess any special knowledge of child psychology, but we reprint, as a matter of musical interest, what we discovered in copies of the Musical Standard of 1911 and 1912 which gave considerable space to the recitals. Here is what a critic, signing himself J.H.G.B., said of Solomon’s first con--cert:-"We went to the Queen’s Hall to hear the eight-year-old pianist. A notice was placed on every seat, running as follows: ‘Owing to the extreme youth of Solomon, who is evidently the youngest pianist who has ever played in London,

"We can’t all be first-rate executants, but we can all try to be first-rate listeners," he said." "And by that I mean listeners who hear, not just the tune, but the -" (and here he held one hand about 18 inches above the other, signifying the third dimension of music). % %* * HE conversation got round to schoolboys’ inhibitions against music, in favour of manly pursuits. _ "Of course you’re in a special position in New Zealand,’ Solomon said. "Your climate is so much more conducive to sport; it’s much easier to enjoy outdoor sports in your climate than it is in England. And then’ your country is so young .-what is it... a hundred and fifty years?" "A hundred."

"Well I honestly think it’s amazing what’s been done here already-in just a few weeks, as it were. England is old, but it’s only recently that music has come to the front as it has done. New Zealand, I’d say, hasn’t had its growing pains-and I think you can’t benefit by other people’s growing pains, you’ve got to have your own-but I think it’s really marvellous what interest there is in music here-the intent listening in that Town Hall the other night. After all, there were . . . how many thousand people? And not very comfortable seats. Were there any upholstered ones? I didn’t see any. Yet there wasn’t a sound, and no coughing. You know, I see this country becoming one of the really musical countries of the world-and then you might produce some really great players, or a great composer; that would be the natural consequence."