The Grim Music Festivals And the Arena Spirit

Radio Record, 17 June 1938, Page 6

The Grim Music Festivals And the Arena Spirit

NAVE competitions o real cultural value or are they defeating their avowed object by an examination-room atmosphere? Meros Gray opens up a controversial subject in this article. "Art should be self expressive, free, joyous and earnest,’ he says. "Competitions ave merely earnest." |

OME years ago I attended, for the first time, the festival of the Competitions Society in a New Zealand town. The theatre that had been engaged for the tests was a large one. Two hun-

dred people were scattered through the darkened stalls. Though no performer was on the stage, J was hushed twice before I reached a seat in the centre of the house. On the right of the auditorium a man sat in a little curtained box scribbling wearily on sheets of paper and whispering to his assistant. Now and then he passed a handful of official-looking dockets to a second assistant, who scutried up and down the aisle on tiptoe. Then a little light winked in front of the box and a small child tripped nervously on to the great, empty stage with a fixed smile on its little white. wooden face. A chord struck hollowly in the polished, massive bulk of the grand piano, and the child sang in a sweet, fluty voice: "Hark, hark, the lark At Heaven’s gate sings..." At the end of the ordeal the audience applauded politely, the child sighed with deep relief, bowed woodenly, and pattered off. Charming. A second of fevered scribbling in the curtained box and once again the little light winked. On to the great, empty stage another small child came-with a fixed smile on its little white, wooden face. A chord

struck hollowly in the polished, massive bulk of the grand piano, and the child sang: "Hark, hark. the lark » -. At Heaven’s gate sings . When it bad happened eleven times I rose and was hushed twice on ‘the way 2

out, and thought to myself, ‘New Zealand is a strange country! 7 . Since, of course, I have learned better, I have attended a round dozen of those grim festivals and have heard some excellent singing, some amazing elocution, and have seen some even more amazing danc-ing-but I remember nothing quite so impressive as those eleven little white, wooden faces singing: "Hark, hark, the lark At Heaven's gate sings . Do competitors enjoy these festivals-do they go to them eager to entertain with their music and singing and dancing and reciting-to express themselves because they enjoy expressing themselves? Do they prepare for them joyfully; and would they prepare for them if it were not for the promptings of teachers who, after all, have a reputation to acquire or maintain? Do people attend them to. enjoy the music and singing and dancing and reciting, or do they attend merely to see for themselves if Tommy Brown is as good as his mother says he is, or if Priscilla Primm has really got a voice? Do people require this arena-atmosphere, this grim bag-that- medal-from-Sally-Jones-or-split-my larynx-in-the-attempt spirit to make them persevere long enough to (Continued on page 50.) ?

Grim Competitions

EARNESTNESS TO WIN (Continued from page 6.) attain proficiency in their playing, singing, dancing and reciting? Are the judges who judge them without exception capable, unbiased, understanding, kindly men-or are they ap pointed by a committee that has one eye on the balance-sheet at the end of the year? Lo What constant standard have they by which they may justly determine whether Sally Jones has beaten Bobbie Smith? . Competitions are, of course, the province of amateurs alone. But why. because a professional entertainer accepts money for the entertainment he gives, and the amateur praise alone, should the professional be judged by the public and the amateur by one man whose judgment may or may not be sound? I do not deny the value to any artist, young or old, of the comment of a sound technical critic. Nor do I minimise the stimulating effect of rivalry. But rivalry among artists should be (and is among professionals) rivalry to give pleasure to, and win approval from, the greatest number. Art should be something self-expressive, free, joyous, earnest, But in .competition psychology I have detected only the earnestness-to win against the field. and devil take the ignorant public! Frankly, when L.attended my first competitions session, I could not see what an enlightened country in an enlightened age had to do with an institution that encouraged the parents and teachers of eleven terrified children to hound them on to a bare stage before two hundred people, and force them to sing "Hark, Hark, the Lark," when their knees were stiff with the resolve not to break down, but to win and please mummy! . To-day, my opinion may be somewhat modified, but I still cannot conceive that a system requiring the repetition of set pieces ad nauseam, encouraging a free spirit of persdnal competition, and fostering the atmosphere of an examination room, really contributes much to a nation’s love of the Muses,