976 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



December l, 1913. 



ing written the music to the ode, " God 

 Guide Australia," the Empire Song, and 

 Mr. Roderick Oumn's " National An- 

 them." 



" Few musicians," she says, " can 

 sit down and write mechanically 

 upon a theme which does not in- 

 spire them. And, frankly, this poem 

 does not inspire me. With others, 

 I was naturally very interested by the 

 competition, and the really fine prize 

 offered, I felt, might bring forth some 

 very fine verse. In regard to its suit- 

 ability for musical setting, I need only 

 quote two of its lines : — 



" ' Great our opportunity, 



Greater must our courage be.' 



" So must our courage be to com- 

 pose music to such a poem, written with 

 very little care for the song-writer who 

 is to set it. I would like to have seen 

 some of the verses which the judges 

 thought ' good enough in their way,' but 

 which they rejected as employing the 

 framework of dreams and visions, as 

 too personal or boastful. 



" My first idea for a national song 

 would be a song in simple words, words 

 which would speak to the hearts of the 

 people. All the songs which have be- 

 come national are in this simple man- 

 ner. Think of only a few of them: — 

 ' God Save the King,' ' Now Thank We 

 Ail Our God !' the ' Marseillaise,' ' Gott 

 Erhalte Franz der Kaiser!' 



About the poem itself I agree 

 with many of the critics. It does 

 not inspire me. In the first place, the 

 meaning of each line — and its style — 

 is so different ; the mood changes so 

 suddenly, that the music to suit it must 

 change with a jerk, from the classic and 

 heroic, to the sentimental drawing-room 

 ballad manner. Take the first verse, 

 for instance. The author keys the com- 

 poser up to the heroic with : — 



" ' Vast the heritage we hold, 



League on endless league unrolled.' 



and then drops into the sentimental 

 mood with — 



" ' Splashed with sun and wattle-gold,' 



a very common-place line. The idea of 

 the composer should be to give back 

 in the music the very mood and general 



expression of the words. With changes 

 like this, he would be thrown back upon 

 the rhythm alone. A second objection 

 is that there is no emotional climax in 

 the verses. The music must provide its 

 own, apart from the words. ' God's 

 domain ' does not suggest to me any 

 dignified or elevated musical image for 

 the end of such a song. To most people 

 the word domain is associated with the 

 eastern side of the St. Kilda-road. 



" In regard to the actual singing 

 qualities of the verse, we all know that 

 the open ' e,' the Italian ' i ' is the most 

 difficult and least effective of the vowel 

 sounds. Singers always avoid it when 

 they can, and even change the words 

 in well-known songs and arias for this 

 reason. This poem chooses just that 

 open ' e ' for the rhyme endings of three 

 out of its six verses. In the second we 

 find ' tee ' (ty), ' be ' and ' fee.' In the 

 next ' c,' ' we,' and ' free.' In the fifth 

 we have ' seas,' ' ease,' and ' ees ' (ies). 

 If there is anything worse for a phrase- 

 ending than the open ' e ' it is the open 

 'e' with an ' s ' added. It is a well- 

 known and hated difficulty with all 

 singers. This must be disastrous for 

 big choirs, and here, too, when dealing 

 with it chorally, we find other verses 

 ending in ' ide ' and 'ace.' In most 

 big choirs in Australia we have singers 

 who do not quite accomplish these two 

 pronunciations. 



" In the fourth verse, the lines occur — 



" ' Wide our continent, and wide 



Are the faiths and hopes that guide 

 God's domain, Australia.' 



" This is all very well, but where is 

 the natural pause for the breath. This 

 should come at the end of the line. The 

 same fault applies to the last verse — 



" ' We shall die, but ne'er disgrace 

 God's domain, .A.ustralia.' 



"The sense will be lost if there be 

 the slightest pause after ' die ' and ' dis- 

 grace.' In writing a song all these 

 things really matter. 



" I hope Mr. Adams and the judges 

 will forgive me for this criticism. It 

 may be that the Musical Association 

 will make another mistake in giving me 

 the prize for the music. If they do, 

 they may have their revenge on me." 



