'The Volunteer Soldier.'

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 924, 26 September 1896, Page 24

'The Volunteer Soldier.'

A NEW SONG.

Our Wellington correspondent! writes :— Many young people of more or less musical talent have gone to Europe from this colony at various times to have that talent developed on scientific principles. But I will venture to say that not one of them has better justified the tuition and the training that are to be procured from the recognised seats of art than Mr Alfred Hill of Wellington He is not only facile princeps as an executive musician, but he is endowed with constructive ability of great originality and of a clasß bo high that I am sure he will win renown extending far beyond these colonies. Already he has produced compositions, both instrumental and lyrical, of a distinctly superior style. His Bongs, a 9 for instance, ' Wilt thou be my Dearie,' 'When I am dead,' 'Life's Great Monotone,' and others that I could name would not discredit some of the most cultured of living song-writers However, thi3 is all by way of preamble. The point to which I have been ambling is that Mr Alfred Hill has just produced to the public of Wellington, through the medium of Mr Chas. Cooper's firßt pictorial and musical enter tainment down there, a song called 'The Volunteer Soldier ' which only only needß to be once heard in order to catch on and become highly popular. I venture to say that in a very, short time there will be no more favourite song at our concerts than this one, and that we shall be hearing both the words and music everywhere. The words were written by Mr G- B. Nicholls, of Wellington, after the style of Budyard Kipling's well-known Barrack-Boom ballads. They are both smart and humorous, and Mr Alfred Hill has wedded them to a bold and rousing air with a swinging, ryhthmical refrain which very soon you shall hear all the small boys busily whistling. It is a really capital song, j and no baritone singer in the colony should be without a copy of it. for sung with only ] moderate effect even, it is bound to win a I rapturous encore. Here are a couple of sample verses ! When the volunteer soldier, 'c puts on 'is \ togs, 'E's so proud of r i9 coat, though it a'int got no frogs. Why, the army without "im 'ud go to the dogs. Oh, it's grand for to feel like a soldier. Feel, feel, feel like a soldier; A so-01-di-er, true and brave. Chor.— Feel, feel &c. There is lows an' there's rule 3 what the Government make, From the width of 'is pants to the cut of 'is cape ; If 'c runs short of prog 'c can live on red tape. Oh, that's fine sort of grab for a 9oldier. ■ Chorus, The song has been published in first class style at Wellington, and it is dedicated 'To our Colonial Defenders.' Get a copy of and you're bound to endorse all I have said about it.