"SONGS THAT SINGERS SING"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 534, 16 September 1949, Page 5

"SONGS THAT SINGERS SING"

Sir~I have just read your review "The Songs’ That "Singers Sihg," and I am sufficiently moved with compassion for "D.M." to endeavour to pen something in reply. He begins, "I am very fond of songs with piano accompaniment," and so classes himself as one who regards a song as a story set to musical accompaniment. Such a conception must surely be archaic, I would go almost as far as to say that any song, the piano part of which does not play its own full share in providing the atmosphere aimed at by the composer, falls short of being a worthwhile com‘position. The following of words as the Main conception of a song is elementary in the extreme. I suggest to "D.M." that he secure a good recording of Schubert’s "Erl-King" and listen to the music in an endeavour to. discover for himself how much the atmosphere depends upon the musig, be it supplied by orchestra or piano. Coming to the question of translations, I fear "D.M." is again wandering hopelessly, There are in my mind two functions of words in a‘ song-first, they make the human voice articulate and render .the tone quality much more pleasing ‘to the ear, and, secondly, they tell the story of the poem. The composer in setting his music must take full cognisance of the tone quality provided by the vowel sounds of the original language and this tonal colour and the music are insepafable. This is why the original language of a song is always the better, and it would be a miracle if any translator could portray the sentiment in another language and at the same time retain the original tone quality. I would go so far as to say there can be no satisfactory translation as compared with the original. To suggest that Todd Duncan would better have performed his Schubert songs in English ‘comes nigh to sacrilege. This is no attempt on my part to excuse the inability of singers to enunciate properly. There is nothing easier than clarity of diction if the voice production is correct, but failing this the singer is left struggling with detrimental effect on performance of the music itself. I suggest to "D:M." that most of the trouble mentioned in his article lies in the uneducated listener who "flounders" if the words are not clear. The. remedy, of course, is mostly more general education in listening, and the complaints voiced from time to time about songs in foreign languages empha-

sise this.

D.L.

I.

(Wellington).