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The Spike [or Victoria University College Review 1954]

Music Society

page 95

Music Society

The first properly constituted Musical Society was formed in the College in 1930, and was soon joined by the Glee Club and (after the Carnegie Corporation's gift of a gramophone and record collection in 1936) a Gramophone Group. By 1939, the Glee Club was flourishing and already looked upon as a permanent institution in the College. The war years, however, disintegrated most of the good work, and when a Lectureship in Music was estab-lished in 1946, students were found to rely almost entirely on the canned offerings of the Gramophone Group. But under the enterprising guidance of Mr. Frederick Page (the Senior Lecturer in Music and himself an excellent pianist) this state of affairs was soon changed and a new Music Society formed in 1949.

Since that date, the Music Society, working in co-operation with the Music Department, has been able to sponsor a considerable number of "live" performances of no mean quality. It can safely be said that Room C6 has heard more regular per-formances of 20th century music than most other concert halls in New Zealand (a census of programmes since 1949 has revealed that 19th century works have been least often played).

Two factors have conspired to prevent the society from flourishing as it could. These factors are space and finance. In the first place, the Music Room can hold only a very limited audience. The maximum was surely reached last year when 140 people came three wintry nights to hear Maurice Clare and Frederick Page present a series of sonata recitals of Bach, Beethoven and Bartok. But a limited audience means a limited budget. An auditorium to seat up to 500 people is urgently needed on the campus, and it is hoped that the proposed new Students' Union building will remedy this situation.

Until 1953, when a moderate grant was made, the society's finances had suffered from a general indifference displayed by past Students' Association executives to the needs of cultural clubs in the College. Sporting clubs were more vociferous and usually got what they wanted.

The society has had a representative for the past few years on the committee of the International Society for Contemporary Music. The I.S.C.M. has annually sponsored a concert in the Music Room, usually in December. The society has been fortunate in that many of its activities have centered around contemporary music, for in order to understand the music of the past the student should begin by making himself familiar with the music of his own times. In this respect, Victoria appears to be more vital than the other Colleges.