Most of us who have the interests of British music at heart will endorse the opinions of our correspondent " Concert-whose letter we publish to-day. The retort which all singers would mate to him is, of congee, that English words fare more dificult to sing than foreign words, that there are certain sounds in English pronunciation which it is almost impossible to produce with any naturalness in singing. Whether this may not be the tuck of the singer's training; whether there is any striking difference between the tone of!
English vowels now and in the days of Queen Elizabeth when English songs and English singers were renowned we must leave it to experts in voice-production to decide. But there is one point of view which our correspondent has overlooked. Are we to aim most at the cultivation of British composers, or at the cultivation of masic generally among Britons, If the latter, and surely that is the greatest ideal at which to sim, there must be no preferential tariff; bat the general taste must be educated on what is best to the appreciation of the best, irrespective of nationality. This is not to say that-foreign songs must be their own language and not in Engli translation, The letter is infinitely better if the translation is good and the singing good; and from what we know of Wagner's ideals for the popularizati of music we may believe that none would be better pleased than he st the recent production in London of The Ring" in English. But if we are to cultivate the British com, composer of songs, hish. Compared with what is fresh and spontaneous in modern English songs, there is a deplorable amount that is false, imitative, mechanical and smeared with sickly sentiment. It ie the prevalence and, unfortunately, it must be added, the popularity of these productions which turns many singers to foreign compositions in which the percentage of banality is less. obvious than in the home market. But with "Concert-goer" we may regret that those singers had not more patience to search for the mines of beauty which are to be discovered in the pages of many living a8 well as bygone Hnglish musicians.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.