MUSICAL TOPICS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 251, 21 September 1929, Page 7

MUSICAL TOPICS.

PALESTRINA. v (By Semibreve.”) About tho year 1525 at a place called Palestrina, in tho campagna of Rome, Giovanni Pier Luigi Sante was born, in after styled da Palestrina. Born in a hutnble station of lifo of poor parents, Palestrina sought opportunities for the study of music, and at an early ago he went to Romo to seek employment as a singer in a church choir. In tho years 1544 ho was made organist at Palestrina, becoming also master of tho boys in the Giula Chapel, receiving the title of “the Chapel Master of the Vatican Basilica.” Palestrina’s first book of masses was dedicated to Pope Julius IIL who, on July 30, 1554, admitted him to the Pontifical Chapel os a singer, but against the rules, for Palestrina was married and had no voice. A year lator he was dismissed from this office by Pope Paul IV. who allowed him a small pension. This blow seriously affected Palestrina’s health, causing nervous prostration. There was, however, great work for him to do, a work which ho must have found congenial for the same authority that dismissed him from an office which he could not properly fill found him work to do as conductor at tho Lateran. The year 1560 saw the famous “Improperia” produced with such great success that each succeeding Good Friday has witnessed its performance in the Sistine Chapel down to the present time. At the time of his appointment to the post of conductor at tho Church of Santa Maria Maggioro, church music was in a very bad state. It was the custom of composers in the period to use familiar tunes as fixed 6ongs to write discants to or, more familiarly, othor melodies above and below. Church composers evidently pandered very much to the popular taste for they used for their fixed songs popular ballads which more often than not were indecorous.

It naturally followed that even if other words were substituted the choir singers of tho day would introduce the words with which the tune were associated whenever possible, which actually happened, causing such a scandal that the Council of Trent and a committee of eight Cardinals Seriously considered the matter, deciding not to revolutionise church music entirely, but commissioned Palestrina, by this time famous, to write a mass which should reform, without uprooting, ecclesiastical music. Palestrina wrote threo masses for this purpose, all of a noble, inspiring character, the third, tho famous “Missa papae Marcelli,” winning the most profound praise. These masses won Palestrina such fame, that he was called “the saviour of music,” receiving the appointment of composor to the Pontifical Chapel. In 1571 he became maestro of St. Peters,. Rome, an appointment which he held until his death on February 2, 1594. The number of commissions which Palestrina received to either revise, or write new music caused himo to devote all his time to tho writing of music in which he developed a splendid style, and incidentally brought the standard of church music to a high pitch, which has never been surpassed. Palestrina’s work in musical history then was bringing order out of chaos in church music and sotting the model for purity of style. In his work ho adopted a less rigid medium than his predecessors, but excluded riotous freedom, thus imposing dignity of style which set the standard for all the great composers since his time. SONGS AND SINGERS. Mr Dixon, the judge of the vocal section of the recent Wellington competitions, told the competitors that it was wrong to sing songs at. competitions in a foreign language if it were possible to obtain a good English translation, giving as his reason that an audience likes to understand the language that is being sung. The. student may ask: Am I never to sing a song in the language to which the music is composed, if it is other than English ? so many songs are spoilt musically by the translation ! The answer to such a query would be: Of course; but let such singing be confined to the studio, or a 6elcct company of people who either understand tho language or are content to listen to the musio only. In olden days, when Latin was almost the common tongue between intellectuals, it was considered to be impolite to use Latin in mixed company where a translation might be called for. The same consideration should be extended by a singer to an audience for even if the foreign accent is perfect, which it often is not, a printed translation would bo absolutely necessary on tho programme, which is usually done when a foreign' singer visits, this country. Students learning to sing a foreign language do so for the technical benefit which accruos, Italian, French, German — each providing some technical facility, such as added power of enunciation, cultivation of pure vowel sounds, open throat singing and so on, and, like many other technical exercises, they should be kept for the studio and not allowed for public performance. MUSIC AND THE PERSONAL TOUCH Mr Robert Parker, judging tho piano classes at tho Wellington competitions, drew tho attention of the audience to the fact that so much mechanical music is depriving many a budding musiciun of that personal touch which is so vital to the training of a young performer. The fact is. that mechanical music has come upon the world with such comparative suddenness that people generally have lost temporarily the sense of value. lor hundreds, nay, thousands of years, community musio proved the basis of all musical enjoyment, solo performances being but a side issue reserved for people with special, extraordinary qualifications and aptitude. These latter are in the present day actively engaged in making a performance so perfect that the whole world may judge of that perfection through the medium of the recording machine. Con. sequently, it is inevitable that the great multitude of singers and players, who have aspirations, however, moderate, despair because their efforts do not come up to the perfect standard set hy the*virtuose, forgetting that one hears only the perfected result of much hard work. This attitude is, of course, entirely wrong; it is the personal touch that counts in music, that living personal power of expression which is strong in all. of us, and makes for some degree of satisfaction even when a performance may not be as perfect as one would wish. ! Then, again, there is the question of the joy of overcoming difficulties, so excellent for character building; thore is tho discipline which tho study of music imposes on the powers of expression, and the pleasure which even a modorato performance can givo to one’s friends and acquaintances. Mechanical music certainly does seem to have usurped the place of old time community musio in the home, but it is certain that a community habit which began so many centuries ago will not die out, but will come back again in stronger force than ever. STRAY NOTES. Strenuous efforts aro being made in Melbourne to raise the £3OOO necessary to 6end Nancy Weir, the wonder child pianist, to Europe for further study. Nancy. 13 said to possess a vigorous personality allied to a mature talent. Efroin Kurtz of tho Stutgart Philharmonic Society, is organising an orchestra of ninety players with which he intends to tour Australia and New Zealand next year. Kurtz recently conducted a concert for tire Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the programme including a Greig concerto, the pianist being William Murdoch. It is said of Kurtz’s conducting that “ho ropoees confidence in his players, he seems to ask them to feel tho emotions of their music individually, and thus obtians wholesale temperamental quality instead of that of just one man ; he even goes so far with this comparatively inexperienced orchestra as to let the baton fall to his side after producing the momentum he requires.” It is the intention of a Sydney firm to install a gramophone recording plant in Now Zealand, cither at Wellington or Auckland. This means that singers, choirs, instrumentalists, etc., will bo the more interested in reaching a state of perfection if there is a chance, however remote, of a performance being recorded.