ROYAL MUSICIANS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20779, 23 January 1931, Page 4

ROYAL MUSICIANS.

FAVOURITE INSTRUMENTS. The Duchess of York is r;iid to he—like a royal personage of an earlier jieriorl, lo wit, King David—playing the harp. This is a more serious instrument (there is no gaiety about the harp) than those usually favoured by English Pioyalty of more modern times. For the Prince of Wales plays the ukulele and tho trap-drum, and Prince George I have heard gives really expert performances as a jazz pianist. King Edward, though he was extremely fond of Wagner, did not aspire, as a per. former, beyond the banjo, on which ho took lessons from the famous Bohec brothers, who started the banjo crazo in the seventies. J lis brother, tho Duke of Edinburgh, was, however, a good violinist, and used to play occasionally in the orchestra at the Queen's Hall. These musical tastes were doubtless inherited from the Princo Consort, an enthusiastic amateur. But Queen Victoria had a good voice, and when Mendelssohn visited Buckingham Palace in 1845, she sang to his accompaniment. For a Royal composer wo must go back to Henry VIII. George 111., when old and blind, eonsoled himself at Windsor by playing tho organ. George IV. had a violoncello made for him ami was fond of telling his frirndb that lie played it. But "the First (ieullenian of Km ope" was also loud of (elhng his friends that lie fought at, Waterloo.