OLD SCHOOL TIE IN THE ARTS..

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 23, 18 November 1938, Page 6

OLD SCHOOL TIE

IN THE ARTS..

By

E. R.

Baker

To do well in the English singing world today money and inflmenee are needed. The best can usnally win through. but it seems the average muti:ician needs something more than ability. He meeds an...

T least that is what I A inferred when Mrs. Harold Cordery, wellknown young Christehurch soprano recently home from England, gave me some of her impressions. But she had many _ other things to talk about first. Along with most New Zealanders visiting England these modern days, she was amazed at the advances in television. Even today the average resident of the Dominion has the idea that visual radio is in its cradle stage. It’s not. Mrs. Cordery considers it just about 95 per cent. perfect ! ND it’s all so simple! It is just like sitting in a small picture theatre, makes excellent home entertainment. The apparatus has nothing elaborate about it, so far as outward appearances go. There is a casing to all intents and purposes the same as the console of a big wireless set. You lift the lid and, presto! there is a mirror, reflecting the horizontal sereen. And you regulate it just as you would an ordinary radio set.

[RS. CORDERY was given this demonstration at the home of the composer, Evelyn Sharpe, whose husband is general manager of the big firm of Cramer. And the play she saw by television was ‘‘Who Killed Cock Robin?’’

Composer’s Home

One of Mrs. Cordery’s teachers was Dorothy Helmrich, who toured the New Zealand stations not so long ago; later she‘ took lessons from Evelyn Sharpe, singing, at the composer’s London home, some of Miss Sharpe’s own compositions, in ballad form, quaintly phrased and set to the words of poems. WS of many New Zealand ‘singers who are making their mark comes from Mrs. Cordery. Hubert Carter is doing well and Stan. Morgan, usually known as Wainwright Morgan, is second accompanist at the Douglas Webber School of Dramatic Art. He wrote the musie for the ‘‘Laughing Cavalier,’? a West End success. Then there is Nancy Bowden, taking lessons from Dorothy

Helmrich; and Malcolm Miller, well remembered for his fine work in Christchurch with his sister, Merle Miller, is principal bass at St. Paul’s Cathedral, taking many solos. Merle, it was recently announced, has become engaged to Norman Walker, well-known basso. AND here’s some advice for New Zealand singers seeking overseas fame: "You must be very good before you can hope to gain any recognition. in. London,’’’ Mrs. Cordery told me. ‘‘In fact you must have influence and a lot of money.

"Tt seems that there is ‘such a thing as ‘the old. school tie’ even in the arts. There are dozens and dozens of fine singers, all worthy of a place, but the musical market is glutted with them. ‘‘Before trying their luck in England, New Zealanders should work up as far as possible in musical knowledge and technique in -the Dominion. Only then are they ready for —

the attention of the big masters overseas and the subsequent acquisition of the finish that is necessary before anything like an engagement can be hoped or. "‘And private teachers, it strikes me, are to be preferred to the schools, for they can give the individual attention. That, of course, costs money.’?

Good Voices

N° really good New. Zealand Singers, however, need despair. Voices heard here are every bit as good as those in any other country, Mrs. Cordery says. ; : But they lack the culture and the finish that can be acquired only by hearing the great artists in their own settings. _ Besides, there is the inducement. when in touch with great musicians, to put the best foot forward and to emulate the technique of the stars. To see the great plays, too, helps in appreciation of the finer points of concert work. HIS youn g Christchurch artist regards singing, as far as she is concerned, purely as a hobby, confesses that she would not like to have to earn her living by it. The professional singer’s life appears too exacting for her tastes. However, she sings because she loves it and delights in giving pleasure to people who like to hear her. And, after all, that is the sum and substance of all art-amateur or professional. S most New Zealanders do, | after a trip abroad, Mrs. Cordery feels that in many things the Dominion is miles behind. It seems a small matter in the big scheme of things, but she mentioned particularly the vallowances made for the com-

fort and freedom of theatre patrons. She was amazed, on entering a theatre.to hear Florence Austral and Tudor Davies in ‘*Cavalleria Rusticana,’’ to find the place full of smoke. Pipes, cigars and cigarettes were in full blast, and just about every woman in the audience was cigaretting, She wondered just how the singers fared when the curtain rose, allowing a billow of biue haze to float on to the stage from the audience. Artists, however, didn’t seem to mind. And there are very few theatres in London whsre One cannot smoke. Then again, a patron merely has to give an order when going in and_ refreshments arrive during an interval. It if an unusual theatre that doesn’t sport a bar. One wonders what New Zealand would say if an enterprising theatre manager rigged up a cocktail counter and a beer engine in his foyer! OUGH she brings back vivid and delighiful memories of London, there is one Mrs. Cordery will never forget. During an interval in a West End theatre, she rose to look at somebody or other, forgot that her seat was one of the tip-up variety, sat down again-hard on the floor. Says Mrs. Cordery: ‘The woman next to me laughed for about ten minutes. I thought she would never stop.’’