The Score, House Organ of the Bombay Madrigal Singers’ Organisation

The Score, House Organ of the Bombay Madrigal Singers’ Organisation

Place of Publication: Mumbai, India
Language: English
Date of Publication: 1952-1957
Editor: G. W. Noronha
Type: Citation Only
Prepared by: Richard Kitson

Score: The Music Magazine [RIPM code TSB], the monthly house organ of the Bombay Madrigal Singers’ Organisation (BMSO) was printed by the Standard Printing Works, Bombay, India, and published by Mukund Trivedi for the organisation. The editor was G. W. Noronha with assistant editors Zarine Gheewala and Coomie Kanga; Vida Martins acted as advertising manager. The number of pages in each issue varies from a standard of twelve pages in 1953 to a standard of twenty-four pages in 1954. Much larger issues of sixty pages appear only occasionally to accommodate information about concerts presented by the BMSO. The pages are printed in three-column format. Advertisements are distributed throughout each issue. Great use of photographs enhances many articles.

The Bombay Madrigal Singers’ Organisation (BMSO) was founded in 1947 by a small group of five singers, four Europeans and one Indian, which came together with the object of preserving European (often described as “international”) music in Bombay by means of various musical activities. Occurring during Indian independence and partition, and reflecting a British post-colonial cultural world, the BMSO functioned both as a musical and charitable organization. The membership in 1952 numbered some 2,000 persons, with no bars to membership such as race, nationality or religious calling. “What is it that holds these two thousand Parsis, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims—Indians, Europerans and others together? The love of music? Perhaps. In the Choirs of the BMSO there seems to be something more intangible but potent.” (Score 2, no. 3: 6.) Behind BMSO’s success was Victor Paranjoti, a many-sided musician, working for the All-India Radio and the B.B.C. The Society presented concerts in several important Indian cities—Goa, Delhi, Poona, Madras, Calcutta, Bangalore and Colombo in Ceylon—which featured well-known English, American and European musicians including the conductor Adrian Boult, violinists Alfredo Campoli, Isaac Stern, Max Rostal and Yehudi Menuhin, violoncellists Gaspar Cassado and André Navarra, and pianists Charles Thornton Lofthouse, Louis Kentner, Howard Ferguson, Richard Farrell, Elizabeth Zuppinger and Karl Hammer. BMSO activities raised funds for charities such as the Society for the Rehabilitation of Crippled Children, the League of Mercy and the J. J. Parsi Benevolent Institution, and gave annual awards—scholarships and trophies—for Indian entrants to the examinations of the Trinity College of Music, London, and the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. A BMSO piano fund was established to correct the lack of a fine concert grand piano in Bombay.

Reviews of concerts, recordings and musical publications are encountered only occasionally. Great emphasis is given to biographical sketches often including the opinions of the press about a musician’s accomplishments, concert programmes and photographs. Considerable attention is given to reviews and discussions of Hollywood motion pictures playing at Bombay theatres including Tonight We Sing about the Russian-American impresario Sol Hurok and the biographical film Melba featuring America soprano Patrice Munsel as the Australian diva. Articles on the musical activities of the United States feature Walt Disney’s motion picture Fantasia, Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, biographical sketches of American musicians, the annual Berkshire Music Festival at Lennox, Massachusetts. Attention is given to the Edinburgh International Festival of Music and to Pablo Casals festival at Prades.

This RIPM Index is based upon the only locatable copies, namely those held by the Library of Congress (volumes 2 and 3, 1953-54) and the Royal Academy of Music Library (volume 6 no. 7, 1957). Attempts to find additional copies in Mumbai were unsuccessful. Should additional issues be located, these will be added to this RIPM Index in the future.