THE SOUNDS OF LONDON

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 362, 31 May 1946, Page 5

THE SOUNDS OF LONDON

Sir-One of your Radio Viewsreel commentators discusses in The Listener for May 17 the "London" Symphony by Vaughan Williams. The trend of these remarks might lead some readers to imagine the London pictured in this work was not 20th Century London, but a city of more remote times. Your commentator writes that in a broadcast from 3YA the "introductory remarks quoted at some length the views of ‘the composer’s friend Butterworth’ on various sounds and pictures of the sovereign city which the composer, like other composers, had incorporated in his work, Mr, Butterworth gave a longish list of which I can at the moment, only recall ‘the cry of the lavender-seller.’" This is an example of careless listening and making a mountain out of a molehill. The introductory remarks to the presentation of the "London" Synphony did not quote Butterworth at’ lengthone sentence was quoted. There was no "longish list," but just four items, as follows: "The chimes of Westminster, a lavender-seller’s call, the tinkle of the bells which used to be carried by the rubber-tyred hansoms, and a hint of street music, like a mouthorgan’s." These four sounds were all of them ‘sounds of 1914 London. "Who'll buy my lavender, sweet blooming lavender?" was still heard in London and, occasionally, even up to the 1930’s, Westminster chimes and the mouthorgan are still heard, but the hansom cab has disap-peared.-""EBOR," Wellington.