MUSIC-ROOM BOOKSHELF

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 523, 1 July 1949, Page 19

MUSIC-ROOM BOOKSHELF

CHOPI MUSICIANS — THEIR MUSIC, POETRY AND INSTRUMENTS. By Hugh Tracey. Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press, for the International African Institute. English price, 16/-. AUSTRALIA MAKES MUSIC. By Isabelle Moresby. Longmans, Green and Co. Price, 15 HUGH TRACEY of the South African Broadcasting Corporation in his book on the music, poetry and instruments of the Chopi people of Portuguese East Africa, lays before us an interesting story. The Chopis are re-

nowned for their large xylophone orchestras, Mr, Tracey tells us how these timbila are made and played. The way in which this highly individual -Tacial group combines traditional poetry, mhusical composition, and _ the dance, for ritual and = entertainment purposes makes a fascinating study, and the author must be praised for his (continued on next page) ,

BOOK REVIEWS_ (Cont' d)

(continued from previous page) painstaking research and meticulous attention to detail. The book is splendidly illustratedthere are photographic plates showing musicians and dancers in actibn, and black-and-white diagrams demonstrating the relative positions of all participants at actual performances of the elaborate Chopi orchestral dances (many of which comprise 10 to 12 lengthy episodes). I was particularly interested in the chart comparing the just and tempered versions of our European scale systems with the Chopi scales, and also in the page of themes by the composer Gomukomu. Recently I have been playing two-piano transcriptions (by the American, Colin McPhee) of Balinese music, and the resemblance in the rhythm, contrapuntal texture, and instrumentation between the music of these widely-separated races is surely not a mere coincidence. I should say that Chopi musicians would afford much pleasure and profit to anyone even mildly interested in the ethnological aspect of music. Australia Makes Music is by a prominent Australian musician, who, as a performer on both violin and viola, has played under most Australian and in-ternationally-famous visiting conductors. One feels that she discusses impartially the state of all types of music in her country. Following a foreword by the noted musicologist Bernard Heinze comes a brief survey covering a century and a-half of music in Australia. I found the chapter on aboriginal music and instruments- most absorbing. The short and pithy biographical sketches of Australian composers, conductors, concert artists, and makers of musical instruments, are invaluable from a programme organiser’s point of view, and yet are equally informative and entertaining for any interested reader who may’ wish to acquire factual and concise knowledge of these musical personalities so frequently heard in our concert and broadcast programmes, Some 10 pages at the end of the book list Australian choral societies (complete with conductors’ names) and give a comprehensive selection of recordings of Australian works of all types-orch-estral, instrumental (solo and ensemble), vocal (solo and concerted), and brass and militarv band.

Bessie

Pollard