The Danish Music Review

The Danish Music Review

Tone and Space

(209-213)

Povl Hamburger, M. A. seriously critizises the fact that often far too large halls are employed for performances of good music. F.inst. this was the case with a concert held in »Forum«, a large exhibition hall in Copenhagen seating an audience af 7000. On this occasion Yehudi Menuhin played the violin concertos of Beethoven and Mendelssohn. »Forum« is situated opposite the studios and the concert hall of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation and has just been rebuilt after having been blown up during the German occupation. The building which actually consists of outer walls only and a huge glass roof is completely inapplicable as a concert hall.

Povl Hamburger is of the opinion that in our time people have lost the ability of finding a suitable proportion between tone and space which must be taken into consideration to a very great extent in the question of concert halls. Of course no big choir- and symphony-concerts are held in rooms which cannot seat an audience of more than 150; on the other hand the inost intimate kind of music is inconsiderately played in large halls (seating 1500) or as in »Forum« classical orchestral music for 7000 listeners whose impression of the concert must absolutely be bad and wrong. Of course all this is due to a disproportioning of tone and space. Listening to music in the right manner is not only a physical but also a psychological question. A symphony cannot be regarded as chamber music on a large scale, and on the other hand chamber music will never get a symphonic stamp if external effects are amplified. The proportion between tone and space must in all cases be respected so that the deniands of art are fully met. One thing is to make inusic popular, another and less advant-ageous thing is to make it vulgar.

The Youngest Generation

(213-215)

In october 1945 the music students from tlie Music High School of Stockholm, the Music Conservatory of Oslo, the Sibelius Academy of Helsingfors, and The Royal Danish Music Conservatory of Copenhagen started an inter- Scandinavian collaboration. The purpose of this collaboration is Linst. to establish exshange of students among the pupils from the respective countries and in each country a library has been founded containing new Scandinavian music, and is still being completed as new works appear. This library is open to anybody who wants to keep himself up to date as regards new works. But the work which most intimately binds the Scandinavian music students together is the annual. musie festival held in turn in the different countries. At these music festivals comprising three or four concerts music students arrive from the four countries in order to present works written mainly by the youngest composers, i.e. by the pupils themselves. Frede Schandorf Pelersen, the author of this article who at the time took part in establishing this contact between the northern countries, gives a survey of the second music festival which took place in Copenhagen from the 27th till the 29th October this year. Still it had not yet been possible to perform works exclusively by the youngest composers; however, many of these revealed considerable talent. F.inst. no less than six young Danish composers below the age of 26 were represented. No doubt this work will be of the greatest, importance to the future of Scandinavian inusic, as the young musicians participating in these efforts are those who in a, few years are to carry on the musical life of the northern countries.

Musical Edueation in the, Schools ol London

(215-216)

Rudolf Grytter gives an account of a lecture delivered in Copenliagen on the 14th October by Dr. Leslie Russel, the director of the educational music in the schools of London. Much is being done for the benefit of music-cultural work in the schools, and it is of importance that music and song enjoy the same status as the other subjects. A detailed plan has been worked out having as an object in the course of a number of years to give the children a thorough orientation in the different branches of music such as music and movement, understanding of music, instrumental teaching as well as concerts, for pupils. To the Danes such an organization is entirely unknown, but it is pleasant. to see that in spite of huge economical difficulties England is able to do this excellent work for a fundamental musical education no matter the costs, and witliout hesitating to place song and musie on the same level as other subjects so that music from being merely a private becomes an official affair. The author concludes with the question: »When will our ministry of education and the executive authorities realize the importance of establishing something similar in Denmark?«

New Music from the Publishers

(221-222)

In future under this title will be given a short survey of recently published works sent to the editors partly from Danish and partly from foreign publishers. The survey will be accompanied by a short characterization or if necessary by a detailed review of the works in question.