ORIGIN OF POPULAR SONGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8156, 18 January 1890, Page 2 (Supplement)

ORIGIN OF POPULAR SONGS.

It is carious to observe how many of our most popular songs have owed their origin to the merest chance. This was the case with "Nancy Lee." It was written by Mr. Frederick E. Wentherloy, at Oxford, because a pupil failed to keep an appointment. "I wrote the song in an hour," says the author. " The idea of the piece came suddenly to me while I was wondering why my pupil did not come, and the whole thing was written off there and then." Mr. Wcatherley, who is one of the most successful writers of verse set to music, says that the ideas for his songs come at the most unexpected moments. It is while walking along the Strand or in some crowded thorough faro that most ideas come; but ho adds that scarcely any of his songs indicate the circumstances under which they were written. His nautical songs were composer! far from the" sea, and his rural ones miles from the country. Above all things, he must feel happy. His most melancholy dirges were composed when he was in the best of spirits. " My Pretty Jane," one of the most profitable songs to publishers ever written, originated as follows: —Mr. Fitzball, the author, while a lad, was in the habit of walking up one of the pretty willed lanes of Burwell—a picturesque village near Newmarket —to look after his fatl er*s land. "Near one of theso lanes resided a farmer, whose only daughter Jane was o ;casion:dly to be seen by Fitzball peering over a very clean and pretty white blind, only her nose, eyes, forehead, ears, and hair visible, all of which were of surpassing loveliness. Sometimes she would nod to him with artless simplicity as ho passed, and this so inflamed his heart that the result was " My Pretty Jane," written in one of his father's fields just "when the bloom was ,on the rye." The heroine of the song, it is melancholy to add, died of consumption while still young, but before her death Mr. Fitzball "had '' painted her ' likeness, and the portrait is now in the possession of his daughter. " Some Hay," one of Milton Wellings' most succe.-sful songs, was written under very painful circumstances. His wife was out yachting with friends, and it was rumoured that the vessel had met with an accident. He telegraphed several times to Cowcs, Isle of Wight, whither he knew his wife had gone, but received no reply. During this time of suspense he by chance picked up the words of "Some Day," and lie was so struck by the line " Or are you dead or do you live?" that the melody Hashed through his mind at once. The same writer's well-known song "It Was Many a Year Ago" was composed when he had lost his only child but one week. "Scots Wha Hae" was conceived by Burns while riding on horseback over a lonely moor in the midst of a thunderstorm. America's second national anthem, " The Star-spangled Banner," was composed by Francis Scott Key while watching the bombardment of Fort M'Henry in the early days of the Secession War.