OLD SONGS AND SINGERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12085, 14 August 1917, Page 7

OLD SONGS AND SINGERS.

Ab usual 3 when comparison is made by him between tilings of the past and things of the present, say& an American writer, the pessimist) of this period is to lament o-?r what he calls the decadence of the popular song and_ the popular singer. It. "cannot be. denied that, the popular sons;'of todny is in need of improvement"; neither can it ba denied that, in attempts to express vocally the ragtime and the ragged quality of melodies that have received popular sanction, many smears, private as veil as public, give out that grats very harshly upon the ear:-. of lovers of real music, lf.it the. question is one of comparison, purely, and wlien it is asserted Thai" compared with the past, the songs and singers ci" to-day, in the United" Spates, are at a T-»ry low level, impartial inquiry is challenged It. ought to be said that in the wholesale criticism to whie-h the songs and singers of our time are. being sub.ieered, even professional) singers of the highest .grade are receiving attention. Mario and Jenny L:nd are, of course. always set up as standards by which -ill other singers must be measured, although Brignoli and Patti are occasionally referred to condescendingly and patronizingly by the musical critic for whom everything, or nearly everyrhing, stopped with the close of the first heir of the nineteenth century. Sorely, a long procession of great singers \\:,% passed before the opera-goers sinoe the. mid-Victorian period, and if the me/i shall be out of the account altogether, some very delightful memories may be aroused by the'mention of such names as Christine "Xiisson. Clara. Louise Kellogg, Pa-rep a Rosa, Yesdames Albani, Eames, Afelba, Sembrieh and others, who have preserved and maintained through their carpers the best traditions of the h-ric stag'?. It is 3 striking fact, when we cot down to popular music, how very few old songs among the preserved and cherished date back a hundred year:or so. There are some, to be sure, that never have grown old, and probably never will, but very few are the survivors. Yet the production ot popular songs in the nineteenth century" was immense; the greater part of <he output destined to have their fleeting hour and pass away for ever- Yow and th.?n ■there are revivals of some of the best of them. They bring back recollections, and they are liked for their associations, but they soon drop out of pub-ie favour a-gain. The phonograph ha* proved the greatest song- revival agency ever known, and it has made clear to thousands in this generation why many people are prone to hum and "whistle old-fashioned tunes; but even the phonograph is unable to hold an old ios.-z in popularity simply because it is old. Quite as much trash'/ music was composed and published in the past a> in the present time. One need only take the time and trouble to run over a, collection of "old favourites" m order to discover tins. The melodist was sentimental and glooivy' beyond ail bounds. He revelled in the pale moonlight: he war, transporred !>y the pensive; his lyre and muse were touched by tiho drooping lily and the faded flower. One of the most doleful and tearful of evenings imag'inabi.'.' l can be spent with him. even now, iy anybody who has a yearnig thai; way. The pendulum has, apparently, sv/ung to tho other extreme, and the fiipp<'ni, nonsensical and ridiculous, yes, and the irreverent, appeal, generallv soe.ai>:;n.g. to the song writer and pop'uiar song singer of to-day. But here and tit 'ire, as in the past, a song of merit may be discovered.