EDA KERSEY (Violin)
THE WIRELESS ORCHESTRA
Conducted by JOHN ANSELL
THE Stella-Mary Dances were written in memory of the composer's daughter who died on May 30, 1917, in her thirteenth year. For the passing of a young and beautiful life the gloom of funeral music seems unsuitable, and this wish to preserve a happier and more vivid remembrance of a vanished child-presence is expressed in these dances and in a short series of poems, ' Songs in Memory of Stella-Mary Austin,' written by her father. It is not possible to quote the verses here in full, but the following lines show that their author contemplated some musical memorial to the daughter he had lost:
' Now would I keep her living,
Imprisoned in bars of tone ' and again :
' You were music to my eyes !
And music to the lips! '
Music, from your ribbon'd hair,
To your dainty finger tips ! '