Letters to the Editor.
THE PETERSFIELD MUSICAL FESTIVAL.
SIR,—The admirable words and felicitous phrases in your paper truly express our gratitude to Miss Craig Seller for the immense labour bestowed on the Festival. It is, however, for the singers, that I ask you to insert these lines. The judge, Mr. Sornerrell, in one of his remarks, advises singers, in order to perform words satisfactorily, to open the mouth widely enough to be uncomfortable and unsightly. This advice is a huge mistake, being disastrous to the singer, in that these actions over impediment to and strain the vocal organs, consequently the voice deteriorates. Certainly custom is on his side, but experience shows it is wrong custom, and hard to be rid of, even with repeated efforts.
In big Choral Societies, the voices of existing members are tried, separately, every three years, and worn ones rejected, when they have become most useful; as in large towns the supply is equal to the demand. From a conductor’s point of view this continual waste does not matter. It is very different here in small places; we rely, practically, on the same persons year after year. It thus be hoves the conductors to reject methods that injure the material at their disposal. I therefore repeat, that words can be pronounced perfectly distinctly, without any movement of the mouth, by those who take the trouble to learn to do so.
Your readers, perhaps, naturally, ask why they should believe an organist of a small town, even if he can tack letters after his name, in preference to a well known composer and London professor. Comparisons are odious. I do not take up the position without being sure of the ground.
With regard to the condemnation of slurring (‟portamento”). A majority of winging teachers are musicians, who in the first place are players, possibly with very great ability, of the organ and piano, the notes of which instruments are each separate; thus, not being accustomed to it, these teachers do not allow the portamento, that characteristic feature of the voice. It will be sufficient to say that Mrs. Montgomery used it with charming effect at the evening concert.
The singers were also told that in the Madrigals the expression was overdone. Rockstro, the eminent authority on Madrigals, writes: ‟Changes of tone, embracing every shade of difference of ff and ppp, and introduced sometimes by the most delicate possible gradations, and sometimes in strongly marked contrasts, will be CONTINUALLY demanded, both by the character of the music and the sense of the words.” Dr. Coward, the most able chorus master of the day, says: ‟However satisfactory in the past choral sonority may appear to have been, something more will now be looked for by an audience,” and he goes on to say that expreesion is not ‟mere attention to ‛f,’ ‛p,’ ‛cres,’ and ‛dim’; perfect expression also consists of rhythm, attack, phrasing of words as well as music , tone color, and balance between the primary and secondary character of the parts in a chorus, EVEN IF ONLY FOR ONE BEAT.”
I advise every conductor to obtain Dr. Coward’s ‟Practical hints on the training of a Chorus.” It may possibly open their eyes to learn of the many effects he makes his chorus get.—I am, yours very truly,
W. PACKHAM
Havant,
May 2nd, 1901.