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AN HARMONIOUS QUARTET 199
haughty they are no longer sympathetic subjects for songs.
" And so lately I have turned in another direction, and I have written several rustic songs, humbly endeavouring to copy the old humorous country songs. Examples of this class of song are ' Stone - cracker John' (Eric Coates) and ' Dumbledum Day' (Lohr), the music of which exactly reproduces the style and spirit of the old English folk-song, and with Harry Dearth to sing the one, and Charles Tree the other, the words get their full value. When ' The Bee and the Song' was first produced, of which I wrote both words and music, avowedly as an imitation, my name was omitted from the programme. Said Master Critic in a leading journal, * Miss Kate Flinn introduced an exquisite old ballad, " The Bee and the Song." Why do not singers unearth more of these gems ? Modern composers might do well to note the way the old composers caught the spirit of the words.'
"I have been writing songs for over forty-three years, and no one is more astonished than 1 at the fact, and at the variety of songs I have written. When I mention a few it will show that my range has been indeed 'from grave to gay, from lively to severe': 'The Children's Home,' 'Darby and Joan,' 'Auntie,' 'Nancy Lee,' 'Midshipmite,' 'Jack's Yarn,' 'They all |
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