STORIES OF SONGS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 29, 27 April 1927, Page 13

STORIES OF SONGS

INTERESTING KSTORY HOMELESS J. H. PAYNE Strange that the words of the most wonderful English song ever sung should have been written by a man who was not born an English -subject. Strange, too, that the appealingly simple melody which has brought tears, to the eyes of many an exile was adapted from a Sicilian air. Stranger still that John Howard Payne, whose hand wrote the imperishable. words of “Home, Sweet Home,” should, in his declining years write that he had “often heard persons singing ‘Sweet Home’ without having a shilling to buy myself the next meal, or a place to lay my head” — “Homeless the bard who sang of Home.” Payne was born an American citizen in New York on June 9, 1792 — 26 years after the Declaration of American Independence. When 13 years old he was a clerk in a New York mercantile house, but he dabbled with literary trifles, and at 17 he tried the stage. About two years later he sailed for England and he appeared at Drury Lane when he was 20. His was a hard life and though he tasted the sweets of success now and again as an actor and author, he realised also the “slings and arrow’s of outrageous fortune.” He went to Paris and endured poverty, leaving at Drury Lane a heap of plays, songs and miscellaneous writings. Charles Kemble, at that time manager of Drury Lane, looked them through and hearing that Payne was starving in a Paris attic, he offered to buy the lot for £230. Payne agreed and was grateful. Kemble then asked Payne to alter a play he had called “The Maid of Milan” into an opera. He did so and introduced into the opera “Home, Sweet Home,” which was sung to the air arranged by Sir H. R. Bishop by Miss Tree, elder sister of Mrs. Charles Kean. The song immediately touched the heart-strings of an emotional people. It enriched everybody that touched it —except the unfortunate author. Miss Tree found a wealthy husband, the publisher of the song made a fortune ’and poor Payne lived an exile at Tunis, where in 1841 he was appointed American Consul. He revisited his homeland in 1850 and at a concert in New York in that year he sat in a front seat and heard Jenny Lind sing the song, his song, that had enshrined itself in the hearts of the Englishspeaking race. A pathetic figure the old man must have been as he sat and listened to the incomparable singer and recalled his life of wanderings, struggles and poverty. “In my old age,” he wrote, referring to his loss of the consulship, “my country has turned*me ruthlessly from office and I have to submit to humiliation for my bread.” Two years later he died —at Tunis, on April 10, 1852. THE MARSEILLAISE In a moment of patriotic fervour was born a melody that carried men to battle inspired. The night was April 24, 1792 and the young soldiers had been marching from Strasbourg to join Marshal Luckner’s army. De L’lsle, poor musician though he was, played his inspired melody on his violin, added the words and the music was copied. Five days later it was orchestrated and played by .the band at a review. It captured the imagination and on July 30 the army marched into Paris chanting the now famous song as they marched. This song was sung during the memorable attack on the Tuilleries on August 10 and though France was torn by internal dissension royalty abolished and republicanism reigned its dreadful course, the Marseillaise lived and has been the national anthem of the French ever since. GOD SAVE THE KING

Ben Jonson (1574-1637) probably wrote “God Save the King” while he was Poet Laureate in the reign of James 1, at the beginning of the 17th century, though the honour has been claimed on behalf of Henry Carey, who undoubtedly wrote “Sally in Our Alley.” Carey was born about 1663, and was a natural son of George Savile, Marquis of Halifax, whose family granted Carey a handsome annuity. It is most probable that Carey adapted Jonson’s words, for the song was revived for the rebellion of 1715, and then was silenced by the failure of the Jacobites until it reappeared as “God Save Great George, Our King,” when the famous Dr. Arne rearranged the air to the melody which is sung to-day. But that the original author was Ben Jonson is pretty certain is shown by the records of the Old Merchant Taylors, for it was composed at their request about 1605 (the year of the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, to which obviously the line “Frustrate their knavish tricks” applies), and was sung in the Merchant Taylors’ Hall at the first appearance of King James 1, after the discovery of the plot. The music to which it was sung in 1605 was composed by Dr. Bull, a famous composer of the period, whose works were often produced by the Merchant Taylors. At any rate we have proof that “God Save the King” (though not to the music we sing it to to-day) is more than 300 years old. “RULE BRITANNIA” Dr. Arne wrote the air also of “Rule Britannia,” and the words are credited to James Thomson (author of the “Seasons”) and to David Mallett (17001765). The song first appeared in the masque of “Alfred” in 1740, written by Thomson and Mallett jointly. Mallett was born at Crief, Perthshire, Scotland. Arne was born in 1704. He taught his sister to sing, and she became the famous Mrs. Cibber. Arne died singing in 1778. While attempting to illustrate a musical idea vocally he faltered, the sounds grew fainter, until song and breathing ceased together. Ben Jonson is the author of “Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes” (the verses are in his poem, “The Forest”), and this fine old song is sung to an air by Mozart. Both words and music are incomparably beautiful. “JOHN BROWN’S BODY” The pulsing melody, with its deep religious strain, of “John Brown’s Body.” which became the marching song of a nation, and has been stolen to make a world-song of “solidarity,” was first heard in a church for the coloured folk in Carolina in 1859. James E. Greenleaf. organist of Harvard Church. Charlestown. Mass., first discovered the chant to “Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!” in the archives of that church, and he fitted it to the first stanza of the immortal song. i “John Brown’s body lies a-mould’-ring in the grave, His soul is marching on.” Charles S. Hall, of Charlestown, wrote all the stanzas except the first, and the stern religious earnestness of the music blended so well with the patriotic spirit of the stanzas that it swept the country through, and reechoed over in England until the very street boys whistled it as they delivered their parcels. And to its strains thousands of feet marched across France and Flanders in the last great war. Still “his soul goes marching on.” “THE WATCH ON THE RHINE” “The Watch on the Rhine’ was written about IS4O when France was threat-

ening the left bank of the Rhine. The words were written by a Wurtemberg manufacturer. Max Schneckenberger and Carl Wilhelm, a pupil of Spohr, wrote a part song to them, which was immediately successful.