FROM BUSINESS TO COMPOSING

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 241, 4 February 1944, Page 15

FROM BUSINESS TO COMPOSING

HE life of Harold Fraser-Simson, composer of The Maid of the Mountains, who died the other day, is no romantic tale of genius starving in a garret or of recognition denied. He was born in England in 1878, the son of a businessman on leave from India, and was educated at private schools in England. He went to France to learn the language, returned to England to learn the banking business, and then tried the shipping business. Meanwhile he had become a good pianist, and was in demand among his friends for entertaining. Then he wrote some partsongs and ballads, which were published with success, and banking and shipping were forgotten. Fraser-Simson’s early songs were popular with the singers of the day, John McCormack, Lane Wilson, and others. Then during the Great War, when German musical plays were taboo, he had the chance he was waiting for, and the result was "The Maid of the Mountains." Some years later, Fraser-Simson formed a friendship with A. A. Milne, who lived opposite him, and belonged to the same club; further, Milne’s son Christopher Robin and Fraser-Simson’s spaniel were great friends. Thus, when the success of "When We Were Very Young" brought Milne hundreds of letters seeking permission to set the poems to music, the poet consulted the composer, and asked him to do all the songs, preferring to have them all set by one musician. Eventually the songs ran into six volumes, and they are endeared to the young by the amusing directions. In place of "Allegro molto," "presto," etc., they are headed "Not too fast, or Aunt Susan won’t hear all the words," "Brightly, as befits a man with braces," "Timidly, with one eye on nurse," and so on. An obituary of Fraser-Simon, with some of his music, was broadcast by 2YA at 3 p.m. on the day his death was announced.