New-York tribune., 1922-04-06
Toronto Choir
ivesWillians's
Sea Symphony
philharmonic Orch stra.
Florence Hinkle and
John Barclay Aid First
Production in New York
Much Good Music in Work
Visiting Organization Wins
New Laurels With Its
Excel ellentPerformance
By H. F. krehbicl

"How do they do it in Toronto ~
There were several musicians in Car,
nogie Hall last night when the Men.
delssohn Choir gave second concert
whose minds must have been occupied
with that question in the breathing
time between pieces. While the sing
ing was going on they were probably
too fully occupied in enjoying it and
thinking critically about the music to
wonder how such choir could be
kept alive. Is it because the characters
1stic love OF the British people for
choral music has survived longer in
Canada than the United States? We
( say survived because we know that it
once existed in this country in urban
as we'll as suburban communities.
We have read many articles and
heard many talks from the younger
generation of conductors, composer re-,
payers and reviewers which pub
ilshed the conviction that musical cul-
ture began at about the time when thev
first began to make more or less tune.
ful noises. 1t is nothing to them that
the Philharmonic Society, which is now
eighty years old, had predecessors here
and in Philadelphia and Boston and
elsewhere; that there were choirs of
amateur singers in America before
such choirs had come into existence in
Europe, where such music as our anna
teurs cultivated was in the domain of
professional singers. 1t is nothing to
them that the choruses from the ora
torlos of Handel and Haydn, besides
sung by societies as far west as Gin
cinnatl as long ago as 1877. For them
the all important things in music are
themselves and their do:ngs.
Shows What New York Lacks
We, too, caught ourselves wondering
how such an aristocracy of music as
IS represented by the Mendelssohn
Choir should exist in Toronto when
New York, with all it's population and
wealth and boasted culture, cannot
maintain anything like it even on a
small scale, even by enlistng singers
for pay as New York has done for
years. Evidently it is not the democ-
ratlzatlon of art. OF which we hear
so much, that is needed, but its greater
INSTRUMENTATION. We do not know, Tut
we opine that it is surer sign Of
membership in the musical elect of
Toronto than ownership Of box at
/ the Metropolitan Opera House or a
subscription to all the concerts of the
fhllharm onic, Symphony, Philadelphia
| and Boston orchestras in New York.
| First Hearing Here of Sea Symphony"
| But we are reverting to the subject
! Of probably ill-natured discourse
/ yesterday which must be dismissed to
make room for record of newer
things. In last nights concert the
Mendelssohn choir had the co-opera
tion Of the New York philharmonic So
clety, and with it's help and that of
Nine, Florence Hinkle and Mr.. John
barclay it gave a first hearing in New
York to what the composer, Mr..
Vaughan Williams, calls Sea Sym
phony. Mr.. Williams is a staunch up
holder of the English spirit, as we
know from all Of his music that has
been heard here, notably the ''London
Symphony" He upholds the English
spirit, not by adherence to the ten
dencies which were created by Handel
and which it will be safe to denounce
as conservative and reactionary until
some modern Englishman comes with
an endowment Of musical genius which
wlil stand in some propOrtionate ratio
with HandePs. He is English because
he believes that music may illustrate
some of the things which progress has
brought into the art without becoming
invertebrate, pressionistc, atmos-
phcric, idealess, formless. His is a
/ stout, manly modernism.
We were not convinced last night
that the work which we heard was a
/ great one, nor that the experiment of
/ using a chorus in something like the
! fashion that instruments are used in d
symphony was altogether a success.
He did not go to the extreme reached
by Mr. Bantock in his effort to make
/ orchestral play with words (from
Keats, we believe, or Shelley, but we
from Walt Whitmans "Song for All
Seas, All Ships" "On the Beach at
/ Night, Alone" after the Sea Ship"
and Passage to India" was happy
/ one for musical treatment. The poems
are not lyrical, they do not invite song,
and TO illustrate them musically is to
/ invite either verbal or musical in
/ conference.
Much Good Music
Yet Mr.. Williams made much good
music, either because or in spite Of
them, and, save in the last movement,
created something like the impression
which symphony makes. Sometimes
we wondered why the voices were used
at All, as IN tne SLOW movement, Wnlch
told us of night thoughts and emotions
on the beach, and in portions of the
scherzo, which discoursed descriptively
about the waves chasing the ships. Yet
here we had some thrilling descriptive
music in which the voices took part.
Think as we might about the value
of the music as such, however, there
could be nothing but admiration for
the performance. in which a virtuoso
orchestra was consorted with a vir-
tuoso chorus and solo singers. There
was music Of lighter order in the
rest of the program till the stout
choral finale of Wagner's "Die Meister-
singer" came to end the evenings
pleasures. To the credit of New York's