INFLUENCE OF ROBERT BURNS

Evening Star, Issue 23175, 26 January 1939, Page 9

INFLUENCE OF ROBERT BURNS

MUSIC AND SONG OF TO-DAY ADDRESS BY MR ALFRED WALMSLEY “I have often thought that in criticisms of the general development of song and ballad, writers never have given itobert Burns the prominence he deserved,” said Mr Alfred Walmsley in an address on ‘ Burns’s Influence on Mimic and Song ’ to the large audience at the Dunedin,Burns Club’s concert last night in the Town Hall Concert Chamber. Study of old folk songs was quite fashionable in the world of music today, he said. All the great modern composers were now basing many of their compositions on old songs of this type.. Burns in particular had great musical aptitudes. Most of the old Scottish folk songs were written, collected, or edited by him. Despite what critics have said ot him, Burns must have had a musical ear. There was no doubt tjiat great words often inspired great music—the opposite was the case with Burns. He was brought up in an atmosphere of music. His family was greatly interested in old folk music, mostly written for dances, and sometimes song. Many of the songs Burns wrote words to were unsuitable for the expressions _ of the pen—there was too much local incident in the script. Burns often picked upon brilliant words, however, writing a lot absolutely to order—the words fitted the songs admirably. Though many of his songs were not kept to their original tunes, they still followed his own inimitable style. The amount of contradiction about his works, however, paved the_ way for criticism—that was the pity. But Burns had the clearest insight into things as they really existed than almost any other peasant writer of the age, and he expressed this in song the most heartfelt emotion. Burns’s songs came from the heart, and they struck to the heart. They had tremendous vitality. Some of his greatest songs were written to tunes that he knew, but were later adapted to other music, concluded Mr Walmsley. ‘A Fond Kiss,’ for instance, was obviously written to be sung, but any melody to fit it must come from the heart. Burns’s ability to make absolute masterpieces of everyday music made him the great writer of the people. The collection of those simple melodies was the most lasting effect he had. They had been handed down and kept because they were written for the people, and they understood themGreat songs that he wrote would never have been saved for future generations had not Burns sunk the man in the work—he wrote always for the people.