The Orchestra

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 385, 8 November 1946, Page 5

The Orchestra

print a list of nationally employed musicians. That we did last issue. It is a little more to be able to add their photographs, We do that in this issue, But players and instruments are not an orchestra. However good they may be in themselves, and however promising after a few days’ trial, they can’t become an orchestra until they have been moulded into a single instrument. It must take months and it may take years, and the responsibility of the public is to allow it to happen. Mr. Tyrer will have to be as firm as a rock (in addition to being a glowing fire) if he is to resist the demand ‘for premature performances, and it is encouraging to find him declaring himself so strongly on this point at the outset. But the public ‘will also have to be as patient as Job and as forgiving as Paul’s letter to the Corinthians if they are to abstain from intolerant complaints. There is a limit to one man’s capacity to resist pressure. There ought to be no reasonable limit in the circumstances to the determination of the rest of us not to apply undue pressure but to allow conductor and yers the time that all living s require to come to maturity. It is impossible to say yet how long that will be. Growth may be more rapid than at present seems likely or it may be slower. Winds blow, accidents happen, selectious that at first seem safe are found to be unsuitable, and so on. It would be contrary to all experience in such cases if no prumings proved necessary; if the present place of every player in the group remained the best place; if growth went on without a check, Orchestras are not made in that way. They are half sweating and half changing and trying again, The conductor must be free to experiment. The rest of us must be disciplined to wait. 3 is something to be able to