VERSE-SPEAKING CHOIR

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 137, 6 December 1935, Page 5

VERSE-SPEAKING CHOIR

SECOND ANNUAL RECITAL

Of the excellent work being done by Mr. j. w. Mountjoy, jun., with the Wellington Verse-speaking Cboir it is difticult to speak too highly, and tlw second annual recital given in the Blue mangle Hall last niglit was a pleasure to listen to. Perhaps some present acquired an appreciation hitherto foreign 1.0 them of the beauty and rhython or words, but at any rate all present could not have failed to be struck by the intelligent declamation on the part of the choir who made the recited worn live. The choir is composed of botri adults and children, and they appear effectively garbed in Grecian costumes of contrasting colours. The opening bracket consisted of "Morning Express" (Siegfried Sassoon), "Niagara" (Vachel Lindsay), and "Cool Tombs" (Carl Sandberg). Walter de la Mare's "The Isle of Love," a dramatic tale of three dwarfs, was finely rendered on a subsequent appearance, as was also the old ballad "Sir Olaf." Other particularly pleasing presentations weiv "Laugh and Be Merry" (John Mastfield). "The Gowning of Dreaming John" (John Drinkwater), "Coastline' (Flint), "Eldorado" (Edgar Allan Poe). "Hunting Song" (Sir Walter Scott), and "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" (Noel Coward). Effective shorter items, all spoken with due appreciation of the mean and rhythm of the words, were "Witch Hare" (Walter de la Mare) "The Song of the Kingfisher" (Eileen Duggan), "Auvergnat" (Hillaire Belloc), "The Old Woman" (Joseph Campbell), and as a final item an old French gavotte by Sir Henry Newbolt. Particular praise is due to the Lyall Bay School Verse-speaking Choir for their very clear enunciation in a group of three numbers, these being "Silver" and "The Horseman," both by Walter de la Mare, and William Watson's "The Ballad of Semmerwater." The same school's choir sang very sweetly, under the conductorship of Mr. O. A. Banner, "Under the Greenwood Tree" (McLeod) and "Where the Bee Sucks" (Dr. Arne), giving "Annie Laurie" as an encore. Variety was contributed to the programme by the inclusion of two dancing items by pupils of Mr. J. Knowsley—"Tango Andaluz," by Vedras Remmers. and a modern German dance ("A Storm Doth Wrack My Soul"), by Lily Kettlewell. Mr. W. Binet Brown was in fine voice with a couple of solo items. These were "Sea Fever" (Coningsby Clarke) and "Boots" (McCall). Hearty applause greeted these items, as was also the case with the appearance of Miss Barbara Bannister, the choir's accompanist. who included a polka by Rachmaninofl in her contribution.