COMMUNITY SINGING.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17133, 21 June 1927, Page 11

COMMUNITY SINGING.

“ABIDE WITH ME.”

SCENES OF EMOTION AT WEMBLEY (From a Correspondent.) LONDON, May 4. The King, and nearly one hundred thousand of his subjects, were at the S'tadiurn, Wembley, to see the Football Association Cup Final, which was won by Cardih City, who defeated the Arsenal, London’s oldest professional club, by ope goal to nil. It was a notable afternoon, first on account of the community singing, and secondly, because a Welshman playing against Welshmen let the ball through the goal almost by accident, and so decided the Cup Final. This Welshman must undoubtedly have been the most miserable man in England and Wales. He was D. Lewis, the Arsenal goalkeeper. It was one of those unlucky goals which may happen in the best regulated of sideSi A hard, low shot from the Cardiff centre forward, in one of those sudden breakaways which made his side dangerous, was saved by Lewis, the goalkeeper, on his knees. There was nobody near him. His clearance was simple, and with confidence he swung about to throw the ball away. Every Arsenal supporter in that crowd of people gave a whistling gasp of horror as the bail flipped from Lewis’s hands. It bounced. It rolled. Lewis made a frantic dive as though he was trying to save his life, and the lives of his whole family, but the ball trickled over the white goalline. That fatal slip. Whenever Lewis had a moment of rest afterwards he stood a limp, despondent figure against the goai-post. His only consolation was that he captured the Gup Final ball after the match—and he probably hated it like anything. Tho Great Choir. The first thing that caught the eye was the brilliant red of the uniforms of the massed bands of the Irish and Grenadier Guards standing out against a magnificently green stage, but assuredly the next tiling was the strange spectacle of a white figure, plump but athletic, vigorously waving his arms about, on a movable, black-paint-ed platform. The whiteness of the figure and the blackness of the platform somehow suggested a scaffold and an execution, but that morbid thought was soon dissipated when the strains of the “Froth Blowers’ Anthem’’ began to rend the air, and it was realised that this platform was the perch of a super-conductor, gymnastically as well as musically trained. One or other of the two by itself would have be' • useless, but in combination they nr' cd irresistible. Mr T. P. liatcliioin fact, was a former physical training instructor, and it was his knowledge of the well-swung arm, not too easily tired, quite as much as his sense of beat and time, that lured on tho crowd to unheard-of vocal triumphs. The echo of the Stadium, perhaps, helped the singers and their conductor to extract a “yah” out of the word Hallelujah that would have Been terrifying in an enclosed space. King Joins In the Singing. The King, standing in the Royal box, joined in the singing. Mr and Mrs Churchill, a few seats behind, lifted up their voices and added to the great volume of majestic sound. Mr Lloyd George, with''whom hymn singing is a passion, revelled in the music. Mr ,J. H. Thomas sang, and Lord Derby. So did all the chiefs of the Football Association. So did every person gathered in the vast Empire Stadium. It was the King’s wish that “Abide with Me’ ’was sung by the crowd. lie hacl heard that, as the community singing movement originated by the Daily Express progressed, two football crowds had chanted tho hymn. It was a favourite of his own. The King asked, therefore, that “Abide with Me” should be selected from the songsheet, and also “Land of My Fathers," Hi is as a compliment to the Wales which he had just visited. The Welsh had beautiful voices. He wanted to hear.

The community singing had continued for an hour when the King arrived. Led by Mr Ratcliffe, the crowd had packed up their troubles in, their ,old kit bags, been.'a long way to Tipperary, and kenne-d John Peel and his i-oat so gay. They had been W’ith their true loves on the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. Then John Brown’s body had lain a mound’ring in the grave.

‘‘Tho crowd was slower to start than usual,” said Mr Ratcliff. “The space was too vast, I suppose. When they got going, though . , , I have never heard such singing! I was very nervous before it began. I had to stand up all alone on a high platform and face nearly 100,000 people. For all I know they would resent my interference and chant, ‘Sit down, sit down.’ I.soon got over that. They cheered! Community singing, it was soon obvious, had swept the country.” Now Experience for tho King. . For a few minutes the singing stopped while the King took his place. Then even the National Anthem was sung with greater fervour than usual. The singing had loosened the throats, got the keys right, slopped ait the bashfulncss. When “God Save the Iving” had been broadcast from 100.000 throats Mr Ratcliff returned to his stand.

“Good old Ratcliff!” was the shout that went up. The crowd all knew him now.

Then, in the presence of their King, the crowd sang “Pack Up Your Troubles” again and repeated “Tipperary.” The King looked on, wonderingiy. Great spectacles are common in his life. Cheers and multitudes follow him everywhere. Vast orchestras have played at his bidding; noble organs have thundered out their harmonics at the moving ceremonies, of which he has been the centre. This was a new experience—chorus singing for which there had been no rehearsal, which sprang naturally from a nation’s iovc of song. Then came an experience that, as the King said afterwards, will linger for long in his memory—a hymn at a football match. The crowd stood up and with bare heads sang “Abide with Me.”

Waves of Glorious Harmony.

“I confess,” says one well-known writer, “that the majestic reverence and sincere solemnity of the hymn unmanned me. The soul of the people revealed itself spontaneously in waves of glorious harmony. “Tim open vowels and the slow rhythm released the music in the multitude, and the sound of its mighty voice soared into sublimity. It brought tears to many eyes and soft- « ro'd many hearts. We sang the lii'.st verse twice, and the second verse, fuui I hen the last verse with gathering passion, until, the manscape awed itM .ji\ for a Hash as the last note /.•derl away I here was a silence of deep feeding. (Continued in next Comma).

“It moved me to feel the religious emotion of a football crowd overcoming its secular excitement and ils tension of sporting rivalry. ‘Abide with Me’ made that heterogeneous multitude one in a common utterance of their inner' being. Shaken as I was by this wonderful revelation of the people’s hidden soul,. I was not prepared for the amazing sweetness of the Welsh voices as they sang ‘Land of My Fathers.’ What a choir! A Miraclo of music. The deliberate,’measured beauty of the melody stole through the air like an enchantment, every word clear and tuneful, and every note caught and held graciously. For the second time my heart melted, and the tears flowed in irresistible ecstasy. ‘Wales! Wales!” The passion and loveliness of the great rhythm created a miracle of music.

“Our hushed mood was relieved by ‘Tipperary’ once more, with Mr Ratswinging and slashing, scything and whirling, hammering and pounding out the hearts in thundering rhythms that seemed to tear the llying clouds overhead.

“An unforgettable and indescribable experience for us all. ' This community singing is something new and in our national life. It is still only in its infancy, but the Stadium revealed its stupendous power to unite and unify us and to ennoble us with high emotions.”