"ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR MORLEY!"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 234, 17 December 1943, Page 7

"ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR MORLEY!"

Sherlock Holmes Set To Music

Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictitious detective of international fame, have been set to music by a New York businessman, Harvey Officer. Mr. Officer is a member of a small and select Sherlock Holmes fan-club, the "Baker Street Irregulars," and he has produced "A Baker Street Songbook" (containing 13 ballads and a suite for violin and piano) privately printed for his fellow club members. Officer was formerly a music teacher, and had composed an operetta "The feats of Sherlock Holmes, Sir

Magic Garden," as well as many songs and string quartets. Always interested in the Sherlock Holmes technique, he _ entered with enthusiasm into a Sherlock Holmes cross word puzzle contest promoted in 1934 by Christopher Mor-

ley, well-known American author. At a dinner held for the successful contestants, the "Baker Street Irregulars" was founded. Before the last annual meeting, Morley proposed to Officer that he write a "symphony or sonata" for the occasion. "Well," commented the composer, in a recent interview, "one doesn’t dash off a symphony or a sonata in a couple of weeks." However, he appeared at the dinner with the first half of his "Baker Street Suite," and fiddled it cheerfully for his audience. At odd moments since, he has completed it. On the same occasion, he read a paper on "Sherlock Holmes and Music," in which he offered the opinion that Holmes should be ranged among the great musicologists of the period.

"The Great Musicologist" "In the story entitled ‘The BrucePartington Plans,’" Officer pointed out, "we read that the great detective was immersed in the study of medieval music; that the results of his study eventually appeared in a monograph upon the polyphonic motets of Orlando di Lasso; and that this monograph, printed for private circulation only, was the last word on the subject." Most of Officer’s ballads apostrophise characters from Conan Doyle’s books, including Gregson and Lestrade, Irene Adler, Mrs. Hudson and the Famous Dr. Watson, alter ego of Sherlock Holmes. Claiming nothing for his lyrics except that they scan, Officer’s style is exemplified in the lament of Mrs. Hudson: He keeps his papers in a mess, He’s careless, too, about his dress. He will not let me tidy up ; Nor tell me when he wants to sup. I cannot keep his lodgings clean, And I suspect he takes morphine; I greatly fear, I really think He’s just the sort to die of drink. The toast to Holmes himself has become an accepted part of the "Irregulars" gathering. It goes as follows: Lift up your glasses, then, and drink to Sherlock’s fame ’Tis we Irregulars who fan his sacred flame; Each year we congregate To keep this joyous fete, Once more to celebrate The glories of his name. Sherlock Holmes has always been as popular in the United States as in other parts of the world.