THOMAS MOORE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 335, 23 November 1945, Page 5

THOMAS MOORE

Sir,-I have always thought that there is no better value in any country for 12/- a year than The Listener: In all humility I read you from cover to cover and mostly learn something from every page. But twice lately I have thought that one of your writers could do with some learning too. This week he-is being witty at the expense of Thomas Moore, whom he calls the Regency Sinatra. He says Sinatra and his kind of songs are on a par with, firstly, Moore’s "Bendemeer." » I’ve never heard Frankie or his kind sing it, but many times have heard John Charles Thomas do so. Secondly, I have heard the world’s best singers, including Melba, sing "Believe Me If All" and many of Moore’s melodies. As I write, the announcer from 2YA is telling us that "Emmy Bettendorf will now sing ‘The Last Rose of Summer’ by Flotow.". That song (the words are by Moore) had whiskers on it long before Flotow was born, but he was man enough, or musician enough to admit that he borrowed it for his opera Marta, The air, "The Groves of Blarney" was written by an Irishman-in Ireland -round about Noah’s time, and apparently Flotow could find no better words for the air than Moore’s. Beethoven too arranged it ds a vocal solo. Moore’s many admirers never claimed that he was the poet that his friend Byron was, because he was a writer of songs, which Byron was not. Byron, though he seems to have had a pretty low opinion of all the English bards and Scots reviewers of his time, wrote that "Moore’s melodies were worth all the pics ever composed."

YOU

BEGANIT

(Kelburn)