BRITAIN'S NATIONAL SONGS

Evening Star, Issue 19406, 15 November 1926, Page 14

BRITAIN'S NATIONAL SONGS

LECTURE BY DR GALWAY On Saturday evening, in the Coronation Hall, Maori Hill, Dr V. E. Galway delivered to the pupils of John M'Glashan College and their parents and friends a most enjoyable and interesting lecture on ‘ The National Songs of Britain.’ The address was admirably and generously illustrated by musical items contributed by Miss Meda Paine, Mr Stuart Thomson, and the College Choir. In his opening remarks the lecturer congratulated the college on being the first boys’ school in Otago to adopt musical appreciation as a school subject. Dr Galway traced the evolution of the folk song, beginning with prehistoric man’s attempt to express his emotions vocally, while his vocabulary was still yery meagre, and showed how the song finally assumed a definite form. Ho divided British songs into five groups—English, Scotch, Welsh, Hebridean, and Irish —and briefly contrasted their several characteristics. In illustration of the remarkable persistence of a definite melody through, many centuries and in wdoly-separated districts, Dr Galway instanced the famous Welsh air, ‘ Captain Morgan’s March,’ which in 1758 was found to be a familiar marching tune _ among soldiers in Brittany, the air having presumably been carried there by fugitive Celts from Britain during the Saxon invasions of the fifth and sixth centuries. The enormous wealth of traditional melody in Britain, said Dr Galway, had remained unworked lor far too long a time, but present-day composers wore beginning to use it ns the foundation of their work. The folk song, or national song, persisted, first because of its own inherent beauty of melody secondly, because it was the genuine, sincere expression of the emotions of a community; and, thirdly, because of its definite and established form. The modern song, written merely to sell, had a short life, partly because of its j lack of sincerity, partly because of its lack of form. Miss Meda.Paine delighted her audience by her many contributions to the programme, especially in the bracket ot lovely Hebridean songs, the ‘Eriskay Love Lilt’ and ‘Grows the Yarrow,’ and the Irish item ‘The Londonderry Air.’ Mr Stuart Thomson supplied the more robust items very acceptably, his songs being ‘ Blue Rennets Over the Border,’ ‘The Golden Vanity,,’ and ‘ Blow Away the Morning Dew,’ while the hove contributed five items, concluding with a spirited rendering of the famous sea chanty. ‘Spanish Ladies.’ On the motion of M r F Z. Moore an enthusiastic vote of thank's was accorded to the lecturer and all the vocal--ists, and to Messrs Charles Beg" for the loan of a piano. The National Anthem concluded a very noteworthy and enjoyable function. i