"THE FLOWER QUEEN.”

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1264, 15 June 1886, Page 3

"THE FLOWER QUEEN.”

“The Flower Queen, or tho Coronation j of the Rise,” is the title of a litTo can tata, which tho children attending the Borough .-ch'ols purpose perfotming on Wednesday evening, for the entertainment of their elders and for the benefit of! the prize fund. The cantata is ra’her n higher flight than has bean attempted, ire believe, by any other school in the colony ; bat thanks to the fact that tho headmaster, Mr W. H.Kncen, is a superior theoretical and prac ical musician, the work of teachin; the cantata to tho children, though feaifuliy heavy' to an amateur, has been com- j parafively llyht to him, though it has; doubtless meant much labor to bin) not- ; withstanding The cantata is of a piece ; with Esther ” and “ Belshazzar’s Feast ” | with which tho Wesleyan choir has re- j cently made us familiar, but se one \ does not expect to find tenors and basses j (the adult voices) among school children, I the music has been arranged by Mr G. I F. Root for soprano and aito voices only It must be said for tho composer that he has certainly beer eminently successful in producing a wonderfully pretty musical story, and it remains only for the Borough School children to make the beauty of that story evident to the parents and friends who are expected to be present on evenieg in M, Stephen’s ecnooi. Mr Kneen invited us to bear a rehearsal l»st week, and representatives of the press accepted the invitation. The opinion was unanimously favorable, and j when we looked at the score of th- j cantata in a spare moment, and compared i it with our recollections of the children’s ; rendering of the music, we were quite ; delighted. The poetry >a by Miss Frances | Jj. •- Cns'ey. a gadus’e of the Few I y<»k fusutut- for the blind, and the | wo.-ds have with them the true poetic I ring. Briefly, the argument of the piece is that “the flowers meet in a secluded I dell in the forest tc choose their queen A person, discontented with the world, seeks in the same place retirement from it a cares anc disappointments. The flowers tell - f love and duty ; and the Recluse —leaning that to till well the station allotted by Providence is to be happy —resolves to ro om again to usefulness and contentment among his fellowcrcatur s ” The little story of the flowers is eo well told by the poetess, aud the musical composer enhances its beauty by the pretty choruses trios, duets, aud solos, which be has set for the young fresh voices of the children ; and, us every lino breathes a lesson of goodness and truth alike to the singers and the bearers, wo hope the people of Ashburton will aid by their presence tho teacher who lias thus set himself the task of instilling into his pupils, through tho medium of their musical sensibilities, some »i tho highest moral lessons it is possible to inculcate upon our weak and erring human nature.