A CENTURY OF MUSIC

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 489, 5 November 1948, Page 20

A CENTURY OF MUSIC

THE MIRROR OF MUSIC 1844- 1944 (Two volumes). By Percy A. Scholes. Novello and Co. Ltd. and Oxford University Press. N 1944 the Musical Times, the journal published by Novello’s, celebrated its centenary, and Dr. Percy Scholes, tire-

J ‘ * less compiler, suggested that a record of the "Progress of Music in Britain" taken from its papers would be. "interesting and instructive." He was thereupon asked to undertake the work himself and here is the result, two fairly weighty volumes. They are packed with information; the book is in effect a social history of music in England from 1844 to

1944, and wherever one turns, whether to The Century of Oratorio or to the Procession of Prodigies, one comes across a fascinating amount of information, Dr. Scholes has a sense of humour and has raked in

some entertaining details: How interesting and instructive, for example, it is to read of Warmed PianosThese instruments invite playing in Winter, when the coolness of the keys of all others makes it unnecessarily uncomfortable, if not painful to many, especially children. They encourage practice, and facilitate execution, by a gentle warmth rising from two small hot-water cylinders, of only the diameter of a wine-glass, hidden under their ends, easily handled, and giving a temperature never above ‘‘blood heat" and averaging "Summer heat’ for some hours. .... Practice becomes invit ing; pupils. willing; the master’s time economised; progress uninterrupted; general playing agreeable, and the Piano an article of unmixed pleasure. or this advertisement, Wanted, a Pianist. One with a little knowledge of Music preferred. or of the first performance of Elgar’s The Black Knight (of which a Wellington performance will be broadcast on relay by 2YC on November 6)Worcester: on the 18th ult. the Festival Choral Society gave a concert, the interest of which centred in Mr. Edward Elgar’s new cantata The Black Knight, then given Yfor the first time, and received with great interest by a large audience. The work + + . reveals qualities in the composer are bound to» bring him rapidly to the front. His .themes are. striking and picturesque, and his command of the means whereby they can be made the most of is very considerable. The result is a work displaying power, charm and musicianship in a high degree. In the chapter on The Century of Oratorio it is no wonder that after the account of Sir Frederick Ouseley’s St. Polycarp (an Oxford Mus.D. exercise), of the oratorios of Ebenezer Prout, Macfarren Cowen, of Gaul and Barnby, of Stainer being rapped over the knuckles for a tendency, in The Daughter of Jairus, ‘""To the acceptance of the methods of the advanced school’-it is no wonder that Dr. Scholes cries "Elgar at last." The Musical Times gives ColeridgeTaylor a wonderful hearing, but has a good thrust at all the weaknesses of Delius. It nowhere mentions those hilarious accounts of oratorios by a musiccritic, George Bernard Shaw, who is al‘most coeval of the journal. One feels that his comment on Parry, "we hear that Sir Hubert Parry is sickening for another oratorio" would havé been too painful for inclusion. The mirror that the Musical Times holds up ‘is too selective. As a compilation of information on certain topics, which is all it sets out to be, it is useful; as a mirror of the period it omits too much to be of great

historical value.

F. J.

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