Apart from war and its kindred topies, there seems to be little worth talking about nowadays. Sadler's Wells theatre is bravely opening up an opera season which promises to be well supported.
"In sweet music is such art Killing care and grief of heart—"
Especially when it is the limpid melodies of Mozart, which seem the most generally popular.
And in connection with music, June 6 was the centenary of the birth of Sir John Stainer. Like all poets, painters and musicians, he is suffering now from a reaction. To the highbrows, of course, he would naturally be anathema. But even his anthems and church services are not as much heard as they were when I was young, though "The Crucifixion" continues to be widely performed. Stainer began life as a choir boy in St. Paul's when only seven years old. He was very soon composing and Ouseley took him up. He get the post of organist at Mag-dale College, Oxford, and simultaneously entered himself as an undergraduate at St. Edmunds Hall and took his degree. The fact that he was actually a member of the University gave him an influence in the werid of music, especially when he became organist of St. Paul's in 1872, which was possibly mere important than his own compositions. Nevertheless he had a grand gift of rich melody and there was a dignity and breadth in his writing which these who sneer at him today will never attain.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.