MUSIC

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3012, 24 February 1917, Page 13

MUSIC

CBy "Treuio-Qlef.")

How Irving Berlin Started. All the world now knows Irving Berlin, the young Hebrew New Yorker, who has set the feet of,all the nations tapping with his jingling rag-time tunes. _ It is interesting to know how composition', with the" slightest knowledge of music, was forced upon him. "i'or years Berlin had been camping in the concert-halls in Chatham Square, gradually assimilating the jingling melodies arid philosophy he found there. Time and again he tramped up tho Bowery with empty pockets while on his way to the publishers, only to be laughed at for his pains and songs. He was always hunting For novelty, but he failed to discover any until he saw the Hayes-Dorando race at Madison Square Garden. The antics of tlie barbers, , bootblacks, and Italian fruit-vendors who had : placed their hopes and spare cash on Dorando so impressed Berlin that he journeyed back to Chatham Square and wrote a rhymed ' story about them. The next morning he offered the lyric {o a publisher, according to a report common along Broadway, the publisher said: 'It looks like a good idea. iS'ow go home and write a melody for it.'

" 'But I don't know anything about writing melodies.'

" 'It's easy,' the publisher smiled. 'Just sit down at a piano and pick out one—something catchy.'

"Berlin drew a long sigh and turned away. However, he followed the publisher's advice, and on the following morning he gave the publisher quite a surprise by turning up with a melody. For the song he received twenty-five dollars and a real start after years of discouragement and hardships. Since then he has written hit after hit, as well as a couple of ragtime musical comedies. He r.idos in his own automobile, has a private secretary, the head of one of the largest music firms in the world, and is the same modest, unassuming fellow that he was when a dollar looked big to him. His income probably exceeds fifty thousand dollars a year.

"Berlin knows little or nothing about tho high-brow points.on music. Melodies just bubble out of his system. Ho has an ear for. harmony, and can recognise a catchy strain the second ho hears one. On one occasion he told tho writer that he feared to study music, as he had an idea that the knowledge of mnsic-constr.uction and its laws would have a tendency to kill his originality and spontaneity. _ Practically everything comes to him in a flash, and if it appeals to him he docs .not stop'to analyse a melody for possible violations."

Messrs. Begg and Co; forward fo°r revie wa coov of the" sonc "Tim Long White. Cloud' 3 (words by Ptc. H., S. B. Ribbands and music by Snrgt. U. L. .Tames, both of the Twenty-second Koinforcomonts). The lyrics, which utilise oncn more the rata spray, tho boll bird's note, and tho nikaii palm, seemingly essential ingredients for any song about New Zealand, are rather good of tlmir class. The melody, which is well within tho range of tho.ordina.i'v voice, swings along pleasantly enough,, but the verse and chorus have a similarity that makes for sameness.