CONCERTS FOR CHILDREN.

FUTURE OF THE ORCHESTRA.

It is now generally recognised by all who have the welfare of music at heart that the symphony orchestra is the most efficient and attractive instrument for the expression of everything that is highest and best in music, itself of all the arts the most humanising. The remarkable development of the symphony orchestra, both as regards its size and personnel during recent years, coupled with the highly specialised art of its conductors, has brought about a financial situation that can only be described as serious in the extreme. Under present conditions the giving of orchestral concerts is as speculative as staging Shakespeare, the artistic results being in both cases equally unsatisfactory. To present a two hours’ programme of high-class orchestral music, of either old or new works, or a judicious admixture of both, with only one, or at best two, rehearsals, is courting disaster, and yet – at all events, in England – the conductor who is allocated a couple of rehearsals counts himself a lucky man. And even two rehearsals practically doubles the cost of the orchestra. To balance this necessary expenditure, and provide the means for additional rehearsals, and consequent perfection of ensemble, is the problem that is always before the concert-giver, and its solution, simple as it sounds in theory, has so far proved impossibly difficult in practice. The Continental method of subsidisation makes no appeal in this country; the prices of admission have been raised to a maximum; indeed, in the opinion of most people, the maximum has been exceeded, consequently the difficulty can only be overcome by increased audiences.

PAST EXPERIENCE.

For many years, since 1898 to be historically correct, America has been solving this puzzling problem in its own characteristic fashion; it has gone back to the beginnings. In other words, it has appealed to the children, recognising the age-old truism that “the childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day,” and as always happens when such an appeal is attractively made, it has been received by the children with joyous enthusiasm. The pioneer of this fascinating experiment is Walter Damrosch, who for thirty years has given an uninterrupted series of concerts for young people with the New York Symphony Orchestra, and his example has been followed by well-known conductors in Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and other big towns. Slowly, as always, the idea has been making headway in England, and a real success has been achieved in Liverpool by the Rushworth series of Children’s Concerts, which were prominently brought to the notice of the greater public, and incidentally to the educational authorities by the interest they excited among the members of the British Association at its annual celebration last summer.

Not to be outdone by its near neighbour, Manchester, by the enterprise of Hamilton Harty and the Halle Orchestra, gave a monster children’s party in the Free Trade Hall at Christmastide. At this concert, attended by 3,000 children, balloted for from the secondary schools of the district, some illuminating and interesting results were obtained. With a critical judgment that was at one and the same time unerring and uncanny, easily the most popular item of the programme was Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nacht Musik,” and when Mr. Harty, at the end of the entertainment, asked in haphazard fashion one of his small guests which of the pieces he liked best, the child put his fat finger opposite the Mozart, adding shyly, “’cos it’s so full of tunes.” Glasgow, too, has been experimenting in the same direction, and Adrian Boult’s experience adds a valuable illustration of the quick receptivity of the mind of a child. Before playing the Boccherini Minuet, Mr. Boult explained to his young audience that the piece began with a decidedly marked tune, and that the tune would be repeated several times during the course of the piece, and he wished them to “watch out” and see how many times it came in. At the end of the performance, almost before he had time to turn round, he was greeted with a tremendous roar of six. These instances only go to prove the fact, known to everybody interested in kindergarten methods, that, given a little incentive, there is no limit to the imagination of a child’s mind.

A NEW SCHEME.

Next month there will be instituted in London a scheme that may well be fraught with enormous possibilities for the future exploitation of music generally, and the symphony orchestra in particular. Mr. Robert Mayer, an enthusiastic amateur, has long had in consideration the giving of children’s orchestral concerts, and has decided on an experimental concert, to be in itself the forerunner of a series, which it is confidently hoped may become a permanent institution. The scheme has the brightest promise of success, for Mr. Mayer has secured the co-operation of Mr. Adrian Boult, and, moreover, has the enthusiastic goodwill of Mr. Borland, musical adviser to the London County Council. Mr. Boult’s Sunday afternoon concerts at the People’s Palace in the Mile-end-road will not have faded from the recollection of those who had the privilege and pleasure of attending some of the performances. To me, the audience was as fascinating as the music. For close on a couple of hours it was held entranced, first of all by the lucid story of the various instruments and their uses, and the presentation of certain of the themes by certain of the instruments.in groups; secondly, by the joining up of the themes by interlocutory phrases, and lastly by the joy of the complete performance, and the intense self-satisfaction of recognising the component parts and their performances that were making up the whole.

More or less, this simile will explain the root idea of Mr. Mayer’s scheme, and with his command of eloquently simple words and a certain unconscious facility of getting them across the footlights, Mr. Boult is the ideal exponent. His idea at first is to feel his way, and to confine himself to the colour scheme of groups of instruments, and one of his explanatory vehicles will be the Mozart Serenade mentioned above. But there is practically no limit to the number of the attractions at such concerts as the scheme expands. In America slides are shown illustrating the various instruments, so that the little ones at the back of the hall may be as familiar with the shapes and sizes as those nearer the platform: leading themes are flashed on the screen, and before each piece, a picture of the composer is exhibited. Some of these attractive innovations are being introduced at the Liverpool concerts with the happiest results. That a beginning at long last is to be made in London, now the musical metropolis of the world, is good news indeed, and although the seed about to be sown will naturally take a little season before it is actually harvested, the sowers will have the good will of everybody concerned. Only a week or two ago at one of the Albert Hall “Proms” Sir Thomas Beecham, who was conducting in place of Sir Landon Ronald, took the opportunity of saying a few succinct words to the audience during the interval. In his charmingly cynical fashion he told them, “It is not you we want here, but your children,” and by this typically cryptic remark he summed up the whole situation in a nutshell, for the symphony orchestra of to-morrow depends on the children of to-day.