MYSTERY OF A MELODY

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4327, 17 August 1937, Page 3

MYSTERY OF A MELODY

UNKNOWN COMPOSER Pianos look prosaic enough to most of us, but they have given Mr Hermon Darewski several strange experiences (says a writer in ‘ John o’ London’s Weekly ’). In South Africa he and a friend were travelling by road to Pretoria when, near Laing’s Nek, where a battle was fought in the first Boer War, they were overtaken by a violent thunderstorm. Hurriedly they made for the only available shelter, a deserted farmhouse, whore they made themselves as comfortable as possible. In one room was an ancient piano at which Mr Darewski seated himself and began to play. Soon, he says, I found • coming into my mind an exquisite melody that I immediately allowed myself to drift into, intending to write it down as soon as I had completed it. “ By jove, Darewski,” said Simpson, “ that’s a good tune.” “ Well, lend me a pencil,” I returned, “ I don’t think it’s so bad myself.” Then and there I wrote it down. For the moment he foi’got all about it. Then, later, he went to a concert in Cape Town, where, we are told, he heard this same melody in a song sung by a young Dutchman. After the concert he went round to see the singer: “Who wrote that song?” I asked him. “ I would like to buy a copy.” “I’m afraid you can’t do that,” he said. “I found this in an old shop in manuscript. It appears that it came from the effects of a Boer farmer, who died years ago. I believe he was killed at the first battle at Laing’s Nek, in 1881. It was his own composition.” He never found out anything more about it—but still has the piece of music as he wrote it down. Another old farmhouse, this time on the Continent, gave him another uncanny experience. Here he found a beautiful old French piano: I played on it. It’s tone was still as full of melody as ever, and I remember one night, tired out after the heat of the day, I fell asleep. It came to me as a dream—a melody that subsequently was a tremendous success in London, I seemed to hear it being played on that piano by white and delicate hands, and the dream was so vivid and the melody so defined that I had no difficulty in writing it when I awoke. On his return to London Mr Darewski mentioned this incident to a musical friend, from whom he learnt that this piano had belonged to “ one of the greatest of all French composers who had actually lived in that very farmhouse, and he described this master’s hand that I had seen.” Unfortunately, he does not give the composer’s name. But however the tunes came, the words of some of Mr Darcwski’s songs had more everyday origins. One called “If You Could Care for Me,” few which Arthur Wimperis wrote the lyric, was the result of hearing a conversation on top of a bus between a soldier and a girl. Pie was saying: “ If you could care for me,” and it immediately struck Wimperis that here was a good title. Mr Darewski was once chatting with De Groot. the violinist in his dressing-room when in bounded an excited Frenchman. He congratulated De Groot, saying, “ As a fellow artist, I say you are wonderful. Your skill —ah! it is superb.” He then pointed to De Groot’s violin, which was being carefully returned to its case:— “Ah, yes, you love your instrument, just as I love mine, is it not so?” Feeling sure that he was a brother artist, and overwhelmed by his compliments, De Groot endeavored to square matters by assuring him how much he enjoyed his performances, concluding with the question: “ By the way, what is yours —your instrument, I mean?” In the same affectionate tones that one might employ when speaking of one’s beloved Strad, ho answered, turning his eyes heavenwards; “The trapeze!” RUM DEAL A parson who was finishing a round of golf got bunkered at the eighteenth. While playing his ball he got some sand in his eye. This continued to trouble him when he went into the clubhouse and ordered a glass of milk. When he tasted the beverage he looked sharply at the steward and said: “Is this milk?” “Well, sir.” grinned the steward, “naturally I put a dash of rum in it when you winked!”