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214 National Music of the World.
strikes me with surprise as often as I advert to it. I know of nothing so flagrant in the popular ballads of England, Scotland, or Wales—nor even among the Negro melodies.
There is another singularity which 1 have beer unable to explain; the weary want of tune and accent distinguishing Irish singers. They never seem willing to come to an end of their delights and devices I have noted the same peculiarity as characterising the players of a heavier people, the people ol Belgium. I imagine, to protract the sound and the words is conceived to be as Arcadian and genteel as the use of grand Greek classical names may have been fancied by the rhymester without rhyme whe wove the wondrous piece of stuff, a shred of which ] have just presented.
If I speak within a smaller compass than might be expected of the music of Scotland, I do so because it is national music better known than that of eithei Wales or Ireland. Even on the Continent, ScottisI music is the term applied to all the national airs oJ this country. In a collection arranged by Beethover will be found 'Of a noble race was Shenkin,' 'The last rose of Summer,' and absolutely, 'Sally ir our alley,' thus designated by one common epithet |
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