"MECHANICAL" MUSIC

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 150, 21 December 1929, Page 6

"MECHANICAL" MUSIC

BOO2CTO YOUNG. MUSICIANS

Sir Landon Eonald, principal of the Guildhall School of Music, London, praised the part played by "mechanical", music in educating the public when- speaking at the school's prizegiving held at the City of London school at the end of October.

"Eegarding the teaching profession," he said, "I grant that many eases have been brought to my notice where wireless has affected the teaching profession very baaiy, but I am perfectly certain that that is only a passing phase. I am convinced that the love of performance, good, bad or indifferent, which is born in all of'us will, assert itself again, and be more powerful than ever. You will never make me believe that this country will become merely a country of listeners. As regards musical, artists, it has been said that the wireless has ruined artists and that they are starving It is absolutely a ridiculous statement Ih m v rh I have t0 lemember that the 8.8.C. and .gramophone companies could not exist if there were no artists. That is where the wireless has been a boon and blessing to youn<r musicians, for provided they have the goods to offer they can go to the B B C and smg to thousands of people instead of having to wait years for recognition from the public. "By this'l do not mean that it is any easier to earn a- living by music to-day than it was in the past. In my opinion mediocrity is dead to-day due largely to what mechanical music has done for us.

"*'Educationally, too, it lias been one oi the most wonderful means of dispelling ignorance, spreading knowledge of great music to everyone, and doing as much educative work in one evening as would formerly have been .done .in a year. Therefore, tlio mechanical machine is no curse but a blessing. It is tho right thing in a, e right place." -■■ ■:. v ■■ ; .