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IV |
Preface. |
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changes in note-values, necessitated by the syllabic changes in some verses, are left (as in Hymns) to the common-sense and taste of the teachers.
It will be found advisable and useful, in the case at any rate of any children who show a natural aptitude for music, to teach them how to write notes, rests, and clefs. It is as essential for such children to cultivate- a good music hand as a good writing hand; but in order to acquire it, the following suggestions should be followed. The pen should be broad-nibbed if of metal, and yielding if of quill. The hand should be held so that the pen is at a right angle to the side-lines of the paper, and the line of the nib therefore parallel to it. The elbow should be kept further away from the body than in ordinary hand-writing. Black-headed notes (such as crotchets) can then be made by simple pressure of the pen, without any frequent circular movement of it. The lines will be drawn straight with much less difficulty in that position, by slightly bending the joints of the thumb and first finger as the pen descends ; and the tails will be more easily joined to the heads of the notes,—a most important point to insist upon from the start. Most music handwriting is spoilt by the habit of holding the pen as in ordinary writing, and a good music hand (which may become even a useful and lucrative commercial asset) should be trained rather on the lines of drawing.
The Editor wishes to express his thanks to Mr. A. P. Graves for his versions and new translations of many of the songs ; to Mr. J. Lloyd Williams, Director of Music at Bangor University College, for the selection, explanation, and revision of the Welsh songs and texts; to Mr. L. Jones (Llew Tegid) for two new Welsh lyrics ; to Professor Morris Jones for critical suggestions upon the Welsh section, and the adaptation of the Welsh words to the demands of the new system of Welsh spelling; to Mr. Fuller Maitland for his assistance in the collection of Rounds and Catches: and to Dr. Charles Wood for kind permission to use three Irish songs from his collection.
C. V. S. September, 1905. |
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