GERMAN LIEDER

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20923, 30 September 1939, Page 17 (Supplement)

GERMAN LIEDER

JOHN BROWNLEE’S ATTITUDE •MUST CONSIDER MY AUDIENCE* “I don’t want to sing in German,” said John Brownlee, Australian baritone, in Sydney. “If I sing from the German classics I will sing them in English.” Mr Brownlee interrupted his Sydney season to go to Melbourne to sing “Wotan’s Farewell,” a scene from Wagner’s opera, “The Valkyrie,” with the Melbourne Concert Orchestra. He will sing in English. He denied that German lieder had been excluded from his programmes by J. and N. Tait, who have brought him to Australia. “It just happens that I am featuring songs by French composers,” he added. “My programme, which was made up some time ago, does not include German lieder. “Frankly, I cannot say I would relish getting up and singing in German before an audience. As an artist, I must consider my audience. German songs sung in German might offend people. Music Is International Mr E. J. Tait declared emphatically that no instructions had been given by his firm to exclude German lieder from the programme. “Music is international. It overrides all national feeling, and we have no objection to Mr Brownlee singing German or any other kind of lieder,” he said. “No artist under engagement to this firm will be told not to sing German songs. The war does not enter into it. “Mr Brownlee, like other artists, chooses his own programmes. Our only request was that he sing Stanford’s “Songs of the Sea”—a rollicking British song—with the Sydney Male Choir.