Lögberg - 19.12.1946, Blaðsíða 7

LÖGBERG, FIMTUDAGINN 19. DESEMBER, 1946
7
ÁHLGAMÁL
IWCNNA
Ritstjóri: INGIBJÖRG JÓNSSON
JÓLAHUGLEIÐING
Hin mikla hátíð jólanna er að ganga í garð, þessi hátíð, er
gagntekur hjörtu mannanna og fyllir þau gleði og kærleika. Jafn-
vel iþeim, er þjást, iog þeim er eiga um sárt að Ibinda af einhverjum
ástæðum, finst birta til um jólin og byrði þeirri léttari.
Hvað veldur þessUm undra-áhrifum jólanna? Hvað veidur
því að mannfólikið virðist breytast um stund, verða betra, ná því
hugarástandi fagnaðar og kærleika, er myndi megna að gjörbreyta
heiminum, ef það fengi ávalt að ríikja?
Eg gekk út í borgina í dag, og skemti mér um stund við að
skoða hina fagurskeyttu búðarglugga. Þeir eru fullir af leikföng-
um, jólaslkrauti og fallegum búningum; þeir brosa við manni eins
og ljómandi augu í búðarveggjunum.
Við vitum, að fáir eiga kost á því að veit sér mikið af því, sem
þarna er til sýnis, og að fjöLmargir geta jafnvel ekki veitt sér bráð-
ustu lífsnauðsynjar um þessi jól. Við vitum líka að þessar marg-
breyttu og fagurgerðu gluggasýningar eru gerðar með það í huga
að iokka fólkið til að kaupa; að fésýslumenn eru búnir að taka
þessa friðarihátíð í þjónustu sína og gera hana að stærsta verzlun-
arfyrirtæki ársins.
En þessar dapurlegu hugsanir megna ekki að draga úr þeirri
jólatilhlökkun, sem læsir sig gegnum fólkið, er þarna þyrpist að
giuggunum og búðarborðunum. Þessa fáu daga nær það, fólkið,
þeirri samstiiUingu í hugsunum og tilfinningum, er ekki verður
vart endranær, það skilur hvert annað; ókunnugir talast við; allir
eru að búa undir jólahátíðina; allir eru að hugsa um hvernig þeir
geti glatt vini sína og vandamenn á jólunum, og margir eru að
hugsa um það, hvernig þeir geti glatt og hlynnt að þeim,\?r bágt
eiga. Það eru þessar fallegu hugsanir, er öllum virðast sameigin-
legar þessa daga, sem koma öllum í gott skap — jólaskap.
Að gleyma sjálfum sér í umhugsun og umhyggju fyrir öðrum;
í því felst jólagleðin. Að finna til þess, að við erum öll bræður og
systur, í þvi felst jólafögnuðurinn.
Við könnumst öll við hina vinsælu jólasögu, Christmas Carol,
eftir Charles Dickens. Gamli Scrooga var eigingjarn. sinkur og
geðillur; hann gerði engum manni gott; honum fanst jólin aðeins
heiber vitleysa. Eina jólanótt dreymdi hann nokkra drauma, er
urðu til þess að gjörbreyta hjartalagi hans og líferni. Hann varð
eamúðarríkur og gerði öðrum gott; hann geymdi jólin í hjarta
sér hvern dag, árið í kring, og varð þannig haminigjusamur maður.
Þessi jólasaga, sem hvert barn ætti að eiga og lesa er vinsæl og
ódauðleg, vegna þess að hún byggist á undirstöðuatfiðum boðskap-
ar Krists — bræðralagshugsjóninni og kærleikanum til náungans.
Hversu ómissandi er þá ekki hverju mannsbarni^ að kunna
söguna um jólabarnið sjálft; Ikunna söguna um hann, er sjálfur var
vegurinn, sannleikurinn og lífið, og reyna að skilja og breyta eftir
hans kenningum.
Á jólunum, fæðingarlhátíð Krists, komast mennirnir næst því
að skilja fagnaðarboðskap frelsarans — að skilja hugsjón bræðra-
lagsins. Það er það, sem veldur undrahrifningu jólanna. Þess-
vegna íyllast hjörtu þeirra friði og kærleika. Þegar þeir ná þeim
þroska, að geyma jólin í hjarta sér alla daga ársins, mun lofsöng-
ur englanna ná fyllingu:
Dýrð sé Guði í upphœðum,
friður á jörðu
og velþóknun yjir mönnunum.
Kvennasíða Lögbergs flytur öllum lesendum sínum bæði hér
og á íslandi, innilegar jólakveðjur.
GLEÐILEG JÓL!
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INNILEGAR JÓLA- OG NÝÁRSÓSKIR TIL
ÍSLENDINGA, OG ÞÖKK FYRIR SIÐAST
G. K. STEPHENSON
PLUMBER
1061 Dominion St., Winnipeg Sími 89 767
5
FORGANGA
Icelandic Singers
Attain High Peak
o( Performance
The visit to Winnipeg of The
Icelandic Singers, who made
their bow to the city on Monday
night by presentation of the first
of two concerts in the civic
auditorium, had been much
anticipated by many music lovers
besides those of the same blood
as the choir.
The following facts indicate
the reason for tihis. Approxi-
mately 25 years ago, Winnipeg
could iboast of choirs which either
constituted completely or formed
part of these organizations: the
Oratorio society, the Choral-
Orchestral society, the Male
Voice choir, tho Philharmonic
society and the St. Cecilia choir.
All were regularly active, sea-
son by season, in the presentation
of serious music. Since those
days, and more especially of
late years, it 'has become notice-
able that, with a weakening of
the choralism once so powerful
from adults, there has been a cor-
responding development of it
among the younger folk of the
city, as exemplified mainly by
the Manitoba Music Festival.
To say these few things, one
suggests, is all that is necessary
to indicate certain phases of Win-
nipeg’s past and present accom-
plishment in choral work, and
Which are offered as testimony
bofh to the enthusiasm for such
music locally and to the conse-
quent great interest in the ap-
pearance among us of The Ice-
landic Singers.
Appeal to Emotions
Conducted by Sigurdur Thor-
darson, and listed in the pro-
gramme as a male personnel 36
strong. The Icelandic Singers ab-
sorbed one’s close attention al-
ways. In music more or less
racially their own, they naturally
made the most effective play
witlh a listener’s emotional re-
sponses, because there was no
resisting the combined teohni-
cal, imaginative and spiritu-
alised factors; where either of
the other two elements of ex-
pression were less happily
b,!ended, as was occasionally the
case when the music lacked
roots inherent in such a choir,
there were still matters purely
choral in accomplishment to re-
ward the closely attentive ear.
The general result was, of course,
a performance in which dullness
was non-existent
One noted how closely the four
parts of tihe choir resembled nu-
merically, and in proportion,
that ideal layout for purposes of
balance arrived at by Hugh S.
Robertson. Which immediately
brought another realization:
that of the choral aggregations
from various countries which
have been heard in Winnipeg
during the last quarter-of-a-
century, none has approximated
more, both in manner of presen-
tation and standard of execution,
to ohoir singing as it is best liked
and .understood in cities such as
Winnipeg, where a well-organ-
ized traditionalism has fonmed
a large Share of its appreciation
of choral music and performance.
Iceland also, in its folksong par-
ticularly, has an equally well-
estaiblished traditionalism.
Since the start of this century,
there has, one understands, been
a gradual growth in Icelandic
music-making of a choral singing
found elsewhere in Europe. and
male voice choirs are said to be
very popular. What one has
never been told. however, and
was accordingly not properly
prepared for, was that such re-
latively recent development
sihould have produced so magni-
ficent an organization as that
Which is under the baton of that
distniguished musician, Sigurd-
ur Thordarson. He has, of course,
in his singers, that fundamental
requisite to a fine choir which
has ever been pre-eminently the
possession of gifted amateurs —
an inborn love of music. The ad-
mirable training they have un-
dergone from so experienced an
artist as Mr. Thordarson was
obviously and most eloquently in
evidence time and again. But
underlying all they did — at the
heart of all their interpretations
— was that inner feeling for
beauty upon Which wonderful
performances are built. That was
why, When they rose to the
heights, The Icelandic Singers
moved one so intenselv.
Tonal Sphere Perfect
It is to be hoped that there was
no under-estimation of our visi-
tor’s skill because their singing
lacked virtuosity in its worst and
most distatesful form; the virtu-
osity they displayed was that
legitimate kind only used as the
means to an end. It is many years
since the writer heard a body
of tone as substantial and beauti-
ful when at its normal. Not a
line — not a voice, even dis-
turbed what was a perfect tonal
sphere. That the ohoir’s singing
should also be continually
characterized by the uttermost
of refinement was perhaps too
much to ask; and yet it was so.
Interpretatively, there was a
kalaidoscopie variety of moods,
colours and effects obtained, but
never at the expense of choral
purity. Of these dif|erent at-
tainments, so superblv amalga-
mated into an often thrilling
entity, The Icelandic Singers had
every right to be proud.
T'he two soloists, Stefan Is-
landi, tenor, and Gudmundur
Jonsson, baritone, were both
richly endowed vocally, and
charged to the full sympathetic
temperaments which made their
work quite moving. The pianist,
Fritz Weisshappel, rendered
genuinely satisfying services.
Conspicuous on the programme
was a Kyrie by the conductor,
obviously a section of a large-
scale opus, and teeming with
admirable writing. From the
personal point of view, the con-
cert was worth walking many
miles to hear sirnply for a song
called My Little Sister, from the
pen of Pall Isolfsson, head of
the Reykjavik conservatory.
Simple on the surface, but not
without some subtleties, it was
of that liiveliness which at first
enchants and then haunts one
for the rest of one’s life.—A.A.A.
—From Winnipeg Free Press,
November 19 th, 1946.
I
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1
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