CAN YOU WRITE A SONG?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 303, 13 April 1945, Page 17

CAN YOU WRITE A SONG?

Tune Wanted For 1945 Victory Loan Campaign

song for New Zealand’s 1945 Victory Loan. The National Broadcasting Service is arranging a competition to this end. What is required is a good rousing tune and it is hoped that many composers will make a bid for the prizes, which are: First prize ae * t.) Second prize .... £10 Third prize... £5 Entries will be received up to Monday, April 30; forms and schedule of conditions may be obtained from any of the stations of the Broadcasting Service (National or Commercial). Many a song which has lasted for years has come out of war. Two, which were written while the British Empire a new song is wanted-a

was engaged in conflict, produced amazing results. These were "The AbsentMinded Beggar," and "Keep the Home Fires Burning." Of the first, Rudyard Kipling wrote: ‘During the South African War my position among the rank and file came to be unofficially above that of most generals. Money was wanted to procure small comforts for the troops at the front and to this end the Daily Mail started what must have been a very early ‘stunt.’ It was agreed that I should ask the public for subscriptions. The paper charged itself with the rest. My verses, ‘The Absent-Minded Beggar, had some elements of direct appeal, but, as was pointed out, lacked ‘poetry.’ Sir Arthur Sullivan wedded the words to a tune guaranteed to pull teeth out of barrelorgans. Anybody could do what he chose with the result-recite, sing, intone, or reprint, etc., on conditiou that he ‘turned in all fees and profits to the main account, ‘The Absent-Minded Beggar Fund,’ which closed at about a ‘saat of-a-million." The Daily Mail asked Sir Arthur Sulli. van to set "The Absent-Minded Beggar"

to music, and many stories have been told of his difficulties with the odd metre. It is said that he walked, raved, gave up the job, and took it on again; but most of these tales are untrue. However, Sullivan found the metre of the poem the most difficult with which he had to contend. The song drove all others from the barrel-organs; tens of thousands of copies were rushed from the presses and sold for the benefit of soldiers and their dependants. The Queen wrote to Sullivan for a copy; soldiers marched away to the troopships singing it. The "Pay! Pay! Pay!" piled up a rich treasure chest. During World War No. 1 Clara Novello, famous soprano, organised huge patriotic concerts and collected instruments for the use of men at the front. She told her son, Ivor Novello, that if he did not compose a war song, she would. The result was his best-seller, "Keep the Home Fires Burning." He once admitted having made £16,000 out of it and said that a certain tenor who made the most popular gramophone record of it realised about £10,000 in royalties. Both these songs were of the "home-front" variety and were extremely valuable as money-getters. Something of this nature is required to-day. It will not be easy to find, but the NBS is hopeful that local composers will respond to the challenge.