Dr. Walford Davies, the composer, has been complaining that Englishmen cannot sing love songs, and has been set upon by quite number of critics who assert that he is in error, We have heard the same thing about some English-women, but is it true? As a general statement for comparative purposes it will probably pass muster, but the exceptions to such a rule ate frequent as to discount the worth of the dictum. We have heard Englishmen and women, too, whose rendition of love songs has possessed that vibrant quality of passion which has lifted the work into the highest expression of a noble emotion. We have heard others whose love songs have been uninteresting and unreal, es sodden and as heavy as' cold porridge. The real fact of the matter is that so few vocalists concern themselves with much 2xcept the music they are singing, whereas the message they have to convey is every bit. as important. We once heard a singer remark after a lady had concluded a number, "Thay woman will never sing until she has sustained some great grief." And if that is to be the price of passion in songs one wonders whether it is worth it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.