DUNEDIN BURNS CLUB

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22790, 27 January 1936, Page 3

DUNEDIN BURNS CLUB

ANNIVERSARY GATHERING ADDRESS BY THE REV. HUGH GRAHAM There was a large audience in His Majesty's Theatre on Saturday night, when the Dunedin Burns Club held a concert to celebrate the one hundred and seventy-seventh anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns. The rear of the stage was draped with the royal mourning colours, purple and black, and before the commencement of the programme, Mr N. Stewart, president of the Dunedin Burns Club, referred to the death of hie Majesty King George V and, while the audience stood to attention, the Dunedin Highland Pipe Band, conducted by Pipe-major C, B. Walker, played the lament “Flowers of the Forest." A highly enjoyable programme of vocal and instrumental items .followed, most of the selections being old Scottish favourites. In the course of the programme the Rev. Hugh Graham delivered an appropriate address. “BURNS AND SCOTTISH SONG." “On this day," said Mr Graham, “ the minds and hearts of Scottish people the world over are swept with a wave of feeling. We remember the lad that was born in Kyle and we are justly proud of his achievement —the achievement of one of Scotia’s sons of toil. We give a whole-hearted, ungrudging loyalty to the memory of Burns. Rohm Burns, in his life time, loved to call himself Rab the Ranter,’ and there is no doubt that our national bard, as a writer, was occasionally a ranter. But even ms rant was inspired rant, and we hail him, without fear of contradiction, as the 'worlds greatest song writer. It is through his songs that he has rooted himself most deeply in the hearts of his countrymen. So Get us consider Burns and the magic realm of Scottish song. What a queer thing a song is! It is just a mood with wings to it. The moods of Burns were as changeable as the skies of his native Ayrshire—and so you find the universal experiences of humanity reflected in his songs. Sometimes he is tender and caressing, sometimes rushing like a torrent. Pathos, remorse, gaiety, mirth, irony—all found supreme utterance in the ‘ auld Scotch sangs ’ of Robert Burns. He has made Lowland Scotch a Doric dialect of fame:

Ohl sing to me the auld Scotch sangs, In the braid auld Scottish tongue. The sangs my faither liked to hear, The sangs my mither sung, As she rocked me in my cradle bed Or crooned me on her knee. But I wadna sleep, She sang sae sweet, The auld Scotch sangs to me. This is the only example in history of a language made classic by the genius of a single man. If the lyric gems of Scotland could be divided into three great volumes the titles of these three volumes would be: Volume 1, Songs of Scotland Prior to Burns; Volume 2, The Songs of Burns and His Contemporaries; Volume 3, Songs of Scotland Since Burns. Burns was the biggest tree in the forest and in ■his hundreds of sofigs we have a body of song such as no writer, in any language, has bequeathed to his country. These immortal songs arose out of living experience. He composed them ns he drove his team in the furrow or laboured on the sheltered side of some tempest swinging wood. Soon all Scotland was singing them, proving that it is more important to make the songs of a nation than to frame its laws. Why? Because it is the familiar songs of the people that mould their thoughts, their manners and their morals. The Earl of Rosebery w.as only stating the truth when he said, speaking in Glasgow in 1800, that Burns had bequeathed to his country 4 the most exquisite casket of songs in the world. Songs which are sung with equal heartiness in all parts of the globe and which his countrymen carry to the ends of the earth as a bird carries seed! “Many of the songs of Burns,” continued''Mr Graham, “were already in existence in the minds and the lips of the people. This should be remembered and also the significant fact that his songs are related to the old Scottish melodies to which they are sung—melodies which were singing in the poet’s ear during the process of composition. He had a 'genius for melody, and taking the ordinary subjects of every-day life among the Scottish peasantry, and using the homely peasant speech, he turned out song after song of the very highest quality. Burns was direct and truthful —simple and clear. He gave two great gifts to Scotland and to the world. He set forth, plainly, the dignity of the Scottish _ tongue and elevated the tone of Scottish song to a purity which had been sadly lacking before his time. To see what he has done we have but to compare his songs with the collection published in 1769 when he was a boy of 10. It was his plan to take the old tunes and fit new words to them. The old words were rough and coarse and obscene. Burns takes them and with the touch of genius transmutes the base metal into pure gold. We cannot classify them into two clearly separated groups—original and remodelled —for no hard and fast lines can be drawn. This, however, is certain: these ancient airs and Scottish melodies, wedded to words which no decent man could recite, would have perished had it not been for the magic touch of Burns. We owe him both homage and gratitude for saying those lovelv Scottish melodies from sinking into oblivion. It is not too much to say that Burns, by his songs, hallowed life and sweetened the breath of Scotland. They are the songs of humanity as well as the songs of Scotland. I am told that they have been translated into Japanese and that the Jaapnese sing them ‘no sae bad! ’ N “ Our bard’s love for Scotland,” continued the speaker, “ burned like a flame and it shone brightest in his songs. Take for example bis song ‘ Scot’s Wha Hae the greatest war-ode ever penned. In big love songs hp is pre-eminent; they are the most genuinely popular songs in the whole world. There is hardly an emotion in all the rich variety of human expen-

ence that does not instantly call up a line or a melody of Burns. There is rollicking laughter, aching sorrow, manly pride, the love of a lad for a lass, the call of children, home and kindred, loneliness and compassion and, above all, true friendship. Take a few songs, chosen at random, as examples;— 1 "In ‘Duncan Gray we have honest laughter holding both ita sides. Pride and independence can hardly be thought of without some line from ‘A man’s a man for a’ that.’ This song is the battle-flag of the honest man for all tyne. Again, in such a song as ‘My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose' lives love’s young springtime, fresh and green, and, to mention but one more, the gentle contentment of happy married life has, for tens of thousands, its supremest expression in ‘John Anderson, My Jo! John Anderson, my jo, John, We clamb the hill thegither; And mony a canty day, John, We’ve hed wi’ ane anither; Now we maun totter down, John, But hend in hend we’ll go, And sleep thegither at the foot, John Anderson, my jo. Burns, by temperament, was a lover. His nature made it easy for him to tall ] n love. He loved mankind. He loved womankind, And we owe to this temperament those immortal love songs which will sweeten find gladden the life of humanity for all time. They are as many-sided as life itself. Who can ever forget such songs as ‘Of a’ the Airts the IVin Can Blaw,’ ‘ Ye Banks and Braes o’ Bonnie Doon,' ‘ Sweet Afton,’ ‘ The Lass o’ Ballochrayle,’ ‘Ae Fond Kiss,' and, last but by no means least, Burns’s immortal song of friendship, ‘Auld Lang Syne ’? "Burns does more than make us see,” concluded Mr Graham. "He makes us feel. He makes us think. He makes us enjoy living. To but few poets is it ever given to do more. The prophecy of the old gipsy woman who sat crooning by the ingle on the night of his birth was fulfilled to tho letter. He had misfortunes, great and sma’, But aye a heart abune them a’. The ‘blast o’ Januar’ win’ that blew Hansel in on Robin ’ continued to blow on him, almost continuously, throughout the 37 years of his life. In one of his last and sweetest songs he sang again of the stormy wind:— Oh, wert thou in the cauld blast On yonder lee, on yonder lee. By plaidie to the angry airt, I’d shelter thee, I’d shelter thee. Or did misfortune’s bitter storms Around thee blaw, around thee blaw, Thy field should be my bosom To share it a’, to share it a’. The songs of Burns! —the wind whispers them, the birds whistle them, tho radio beams broadcast them from pole to pole. They are the property and solace of mankind." THE CONCERT. Before announcing the first item of the entertainment, Mr Stewart referred to the event which was being commemorated that evening, remarking that it was especially appropriate that it should be celebrated by Scots overseas since the songs of Burns constituted one of the strongest links in the chain that bound them to the Old Land. After a selection from the Dunedin Highland Pipe Band, Mr Arthur Macdonald fittingly opened the vocal section of the programme with "The Star o’ Rabbie Burns, and. in response to an encore, gave “The Songs of Scotland.” Two items were rendered by the Choral Society’s Madrigal Club, "Bonnie Wee Thing” and "0, Hush Thee, My Babie.” Bach item had to be repeated, and the conductor (Mr Alfred Walmsley) is to be congratulated on the balanced tone of the combination and the delicacy of its interpretations.” “ There Was a Lad" and "Angus Macdonald” were the two numbers sung by Miss Betty Pocock. The second song, which was an encore number, was given a dramatic rendition, A reel party, consisting of Misses Daphne Allen, Millie Baxter, Margaret M'Millan, and Rita Warren, then performed the “Reel o’ Tullook.” Later in the evening the same party gave a National reel, both of the dances being well received. The standard of the entertainment was high, and the audience was soon in an enthusiastic mood, encores being insisted on in practically every instance. Two quartets, "Ye Banks and Braes " and “ Sweet and Low,” were rendered by Miss Nettie Bauld, Mrs C. M. Barnett, Messrs A. Wahnsley and W. A. Finnic, the voices blending in a pleasing manner. “ The Auld Scotch Bangs, and instrumental trio, by Misses Sybil Baker, Thelma Lupp, and Mr J. Dick,* was deservedly popular, and “The Flowers of the Forest”’ was given as an encore number. The plaintive air, " The Green Hills of Tyrol,” was effectively rendered ns a bagpipe quartet by Pipemajor Walker, Lance-corporal H. Jarvie, Pipers A. M'LeOd and J. Hill. Two of the finest solos in Scottish song, “Gala Water” and “We’d Better Bide a Wee,” were selected by Miss Alison Tyrie as her items, and they received suitably artistic treatment. Miss Betty Pocock and Mr A. Walmsley sang “0 Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast? ” as a duet, and, responding to an encore, ’the traditional Hebridean number, “ The Seamen.” Solo items were then contributed by Mr Walmsley. who was in good voice. “Afton Water” was his first item, and, in answer to a double encore, he sang “ The M'Gregor’s Rallying Song ” and “ Bonny Mary of Argyle. “Heather Bloom,” an arrangement of Scottish songs, was capably rendered by Miss Mavis M'Cormack, violinist, who also played a second selection of songs in acknowledgment of the prolonged applause. The concluding vocalist was .Mr Arthur Macdonald, who sang in spirited fashion and was enthusiastically recalled. His items were " My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose,” “Road to the Isles, and “Bonnie Dundee.” The accompanist Tor the evening was Mr Alf. Pettitt. The programme was with tho biiiring of “Auld Lang Syne.’’