WHERE ARE GILBERT AND SULLIVAN?
Sir,-Since "Iolanthe" is clamouring for proof that England "can produce men as great in their own way as Richard Wagner," could we not hear some more of the Elizabethan composers-Morley, Byrd, Weelkes and others. "Iolanthe" agrees with another correspondent that "Gilbert and Sullivan is the best thing that ever came out of England, Shakespeare excepted." He suffers from the old misconception, that England had no composers of her own. I noticed a paragraph in The Listener of December 19 quoting Henry Peachum, the 17th century writer, on the superiority of the English madrigalists over the Italians "for depth of skille and richness of conceit." Similar claims might be made for their superiority over Wagner. If we are going to indulge a nationalist pride in our own music, at least let us pick the very best of it to hear. If conditions bring about a shortage of new recorded music, some of our smaller choirs could be encouraged to sing madrigals over the air. May I quote William Byrd himself on the subject of such music: "There is not any Musicke of Instruments whatsoever comparable to that which js made of the voyces of Men where the voices are good. and the same well sorted and ordered."
PHILOMATHES
(Wellington).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 132, 2 January 1942, Page 4
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213WHERE ARE GILBERT AND SULLIVAN? New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 132, 2 January 1942, Page 4
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