OLD SONGS RE-SUNG

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20074, 3 April 1935, Page 12

OLD SONGS RE-SUNG

Scores of songs, written for the spinets and harpsichords of London drawing-rooms centuries ago, lie buried among the old manuscripts at the British Museum and other treasure houses. Some were written by kings, others bj r men whose names have also come down, states a writei in a London exchange. Some of these songs are to be hearJ again soon in one of the few remaining old London ballrooms, that at Norfolk House, built in George ll’s. reign. Music-lovers will throng the Duke of Norfolk’s home to hear the melodies that their ancestors loved. They will be sung as duets by two men who have spent years searching the museums for them, Mr Norman Notley. a former professor at the Royal College of Music, and Mr David Brynley, one of the leading folk singers of the day. Princess Helena Victoria is keenly interested in this experiment to revive the old songs in their true setting, and so are the Duchess of Norfolk and the Duchess of Devonshire. “The music of the past was written for the drawing-room,” said Miss Gertrude Kingston, who is organising the concert. “It needs sympathetic surroundings—the rooms that were built for it. It will be a concert of old and rare songs—rare in the old English sense of giving delicate pleasure. Many of the pieces are unknown to the public.” The performance is to be at the fashionable modern hour of 5.30, when the rest of Mayfair will be drinking cocktails.