“MUSIC AND SWEET POETRY”

Evening Star, Issue 22147, 30 September 1935, Page 12

“MUSIC AND SWEET POETRY”

i ■ ~ A SINGER'S VIEW OF SONG MURIEL BRONSKILI'S INTERESTING IMPRESSIONS “I love everything as I am singing it I love all branches of my art. 1 do not really think 1 could say that I prefer one thing or another. If lam singing oratorio I am happy, and if I am singing in opera I am happy, too—and when I am giving a recital, then I am just thoroughly at home.” Those few sentences, spoken by Madame Muriel Brunskill, the distinguished English contralto, can best express at once the personality of the singer and her attitude towards her art. Madame Brunskill has the natural hesitation of the sincere artist in speaking of her work. In fact, in conversation, she prefers to discuss the composers and the poets who have made songs for her to sing, rather than her singing. It is the duty of a singer, she considers, to study lier songs, to try to translate effectively into sound the written thought or imago. Her visit to iNew Zealand may be regarded partly as a mission. If it is not a mission in intention it is at least

so ill effect, for Madame Brunskill is bringing to music-lovers here the works of some modern English composers not familiar to them unless as names. Her songs are carefully and sensitively chosen —she has especial regard to the quality of the verse which has been set to music. ENGLISH SONG TO-DAY. “ I admire the modern English composers because they are choosing such beautiful words for their songs,” said Madame Brunskill. “ There are undoubtedly far better songs being written to-day than 20 yeras ago, and there are so many more composers of great worth. The day of the real Victorian ballad is quite gone. Now, English art song compares on a footing equal to German lied.” Madame Brunskill could not emphasise too much the importance which she attaches to the words of her songs. To her the art of singing is that of making-one the two arts of music and poetry, and the words are far more than a mere means of showing the musical qualities of a voice. “ The words matter very much indeed,” she said. “ Otherwise the singer cannot be in the heart of the. story. Of course, you have to think of phrasing from a sheer musical point of view, but the tone-colouring used' by the voice is determined by the words, by the story you are telling or the picture you are painting. The music must clothe the words, of course. I have often felt about a song that though the words are very beautiful the music is very poor, so that I could not dream of including it in my repertoire. ‘‘ The poet has a dream of some incident or picture, and tho composer translates it into sound. It is the singer’s function to weld the two and to present a living picture. Ido think that one must see, as as hear, for the true enjoyment of music.” FIRST AND LAST VISIT. Tho present tour will probably be Madame Brunskill’s first and last visit to New Zealand and Australia. It is not that she has not enjoyed the tour, but that she expects never to be able again to break her English and European work for so long a period. “ I shall be very much surprised if it is not my last visit,” she said. “ Not for a moment do I mean that I do not want to see New Zealand again. But, after all, one has to make sacrifices for a tour like this, and 18 months is a terrific break. I have two tiny boys at home, and that is really the chief reason. So it is a case of ‘ I shall not pass this way again,’ ” It has been Madame Brunskill’s experience that audiences in Australia and New Zealand have fully appreciated tho best of tho songs which she lias sung to them. She said that she had not found an audience anywhere which had not enjoyed good music, and speaking of this slm remarked, “If a song is presented in a living form it will bring living results.”