SONGS FOR SUPER-SINGERS.

Shannon News, 3 August 1928, Page 2

SONGS FOR SUPER-SINGERS.

LECTURE ON MALLINSON'S WORK. The music lecture given by Mr Edwin Dennis, A.R.C.M., to the W-E.A. class in the D.e Luxe Hall on Monday evening was in the main an exposition of the still living composer Albert Mallinson, with whom the lecturer is well acquainted. Mallinson was born at Leeds in 1870, and is married to Anna Steinham, a Danish soprano. He studied under Dr. W. Creser (late organist of the Chapel Royal, St. James'), At the age of 17 he held three posts simultaneously—viz., private organist to Mrs Meynell Ingram, organist to St. Chad's, Leeds, and sub-organist -to Leeds Parish Church. He went to Australia in 1891 for health reasons and remained there for four years. Subsequently he became private organist to Viscount Portman and organist to the English Church at Dresden. Mallinson .has composed over 300 songs, of which more than 150 have been published. He and his wife have, toured Germany, the Scandinavian countries and Australia, giving recitals entirely devoted to. his compositions. Of late years he has spent most of his time between his two homes, one at Elderbeach, Faxe-Lade-plads, Denmark, and the other at Cranleigh, Woodford Green, Essex. Describing Mallinson 'a work, Mr Dennis said that in his song-writing he seemed to understand the voice. Many of the old composers, in creating their ballads, had some particular artist in view. Mozart had a sister-in-law with a very high soprano voice, and as a result the average singer was barred ; from performing his arias. The Italian l < operatie composers were influenced somewhat in the same way v but they ! did not go a 8 far in this direction as | Mozart had done. The average voice • I of Italy was higher than that of this country, but the pitch of the instruments on the Continent was, on the other hand, a quarter of % tone lower than ours, so the foreign singers did not, comparatively, have to as high as the artists here. Violin players realised that there were quite ten shades of tone within half a note; a listener might notice some of these shades when an orchestra was tuning up. . '■ Practically all of Mallinson |s songs, the lecturer continued, were written for folks with voices of ordinary range, but they embodied a test of musicianship. The singer could not get anything out of them unless he knew them. Another important feature of the song as conceived by Mallinson was the accompaniment, which seemed to frame the words. It was as though the writer had been able to sense the spirit of the poem iu the music. Mallinson was a verv brilliant pianist, and his wife was an accomplished vocalist, and they had given numerous recitals together. Mr Dennis remarked that his own copies of Mallinson's pieces were autographed by the composer, for whom he had had* the pleasure of singing. In- ! cidentally Mr Dennis observed that , Mallinsoii wrote to suit himself as a I pianist, and it would be of no use for a singer to attempt a rendering of that composer's work unless he knew who ' was going to be at the piano, because the average player, could not handle the accompaniments. Mr Dennis sang several of Mallin- ! son's compositions with great success, and Mrs B. D. Wallace acquitted her- \ self admirably as accompa'nist. The numbers were "Sing, Break into Song," "Baby" (a setting for a well-known old. poem), "Eldorado,-'' "Gloriana," and "A Birthds;v' All the pieces were much enjoyed, and Mr Dennis repeated the first one., Regarding "A Birthday," lie remarked that it was a difficult work both for singer and player; the accompaniment abounded in triplets, and would be sufficient to bring grey hairs to most accompanists. The lecturer announced that next Monday evening he would give "an evening with Schubert," and in addition to putting on gramophone records he would sing one or two of that composer'a songs. At the following lecture he would complete the review of Schubert and would also speak about one of the modern English composers—probably Roger Quilter. He had some information, which he would use at a future lecture, concerning Wakefield Cadman, a personal friend. During the evening gramophone records were played of the third move- - ment of the "Eroica" Symphony (Beethoven), rendered by the Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Albert Coates; the "Kreutzer Sonata" of the same composer, interpreted by Isolde Men- - ge s (violin) and Arthur de Greef (piano); and an excerpt from "Cavalleria Rustieana." Teh gramophone and records were lent, by His Master's Voice Company, for which Mr K. Aitken is the local agent.