Part 7 (1/2)

Arthur Foote has written forty songs--among them, ”On the Way to Kew,”

and, ”In Picardie”--and is sometimes compared with Franz. Clayton Johns has a hundred songs, his ”Winter Journey” being suggestive of Russian music; ”Were I a Prince Egyptian,” is good. Reginald de Koven is called the most popular of America's song writers; his settings of verses by Eugene Field are familiar, and his best known song, ”Oh, Promise Me,”

has had great popularity.

G. W. Chadwick, the director of the New England Conservatory, has written seventy-five songs, some of them most original. ”Allah” is the best known and probably his strongest; but, ”Before the Dawn;” ”Bedouin Love Song;” and ”Green Grows the Willow,” are also fine.

Ethelbert Nevin is a well-known and admired writer of lyrical songs.

Walter Damrosch, Horatio Parker, the late Gerrit Smith, Victor Herbert, and many others have been steadily turning out good work.

Edward MacDowell, however, is America's most distinguished song writer, and his early death was lamented as a national calamity among music lovers. Like Grieg in having a Scotch strain in his blood, his work also shows a certain resemblance to that of the Norwegian. His music is highly polished, always interesting and never imitative. Two lovely settings of old words are noticeable: ”Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon,” and ”Kennst Du das Land?” ”The Pansy” and ”The Mignonette,” are the best of a group of six flower pieces; ”Menie” is remarkable for its tender sadness and delicacy; but his most popular song is ”Thy Beaming Eyes.” Critics consider his most scholarly work to be his eight settings of verses by Howells, and ”The Sea.” See ”National Music of America and Its Sources,” by L. C. Elson (The Page Company), and ”American Composers,” by Rupert Hughes (The Page Company).

VI--INTERESTING SONGS

In addition to studying this great subject by countries, and by special treatment of the masters of song writing individually, clubs may be interested to look up and sing many of the old English songs suggested under such heads as these in H. K. Johnson's ”Old Familiar Songs” (Henry Holt):

Memory: ”Ben Bolt;” ”I Remember, I Remember.”

Home: ”My Old Kentucky Home;” ”The Suwanee River.”

Exile: ”Lochaber No More;” ”My Heart's in the Highlands.”

Sea: ”A Life on the Ocean Wave;” ”Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep.”

Nature: ”The Ivy;” ”The Brook.”

Sentiment: ”The Last Rose of Summer;” ”Stars of the Summer Night.”

Unhappy Love: ”Kathleen Mavourneen;” ”Bonnie Doon.”

Happy Love: ”Annie Laurie;” ”Meet Me by Moonlight Alone.”

Humor: ”Comin' Through the Rye;” ”Within a Mile of Edinboro' Town.”

Convivial: ”Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes;” ”Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl.”

Martial: ”Scots Wha Hae;” ”March of the Men of Harlech.”

National: ”Rule Britannia;” ”Hail Columbia.”

Books to consult: ”Songs and Song Writers,” Henry T. Finck (Chas.

Scribner's Sons); ”Makers of Song,” Anna A. Chapin (Dodd, Mead & Co.); ”Stories of Famous Songs,” S. J. A. Fitzgerald (Lippincott).

Collections of all the songs mentioned here, and many more, may be found by writing to music publishers. Public libraries have also cyclopedias of music which will help in writing the biographies of musicians. See ”Great Composers and Their Work,” by L. C. Elson (The Page Company).

CHAPTER VII

SOME OF THE WORLD'S FAMOUS BUILDINGS