PHYLLIS ARCHIBALD (Contralto)
WALTER GLYNNE (Tenor)
THE WIRELESS MILITARY BAND
Conducted by Col. J. MACKENZIE-ROGAN, C.V.O.'
Mus.Doc.,
COLONEL MACKENZIE-ROGAN, who makes his first visit to the London Broadcasting Studios to-day, needs no introduction to anyone in the world who has ever enjoyed military band music. The work he has done throughout his long and distinguished career has been of the utmost value to our British Bands, and has been fittingly recognized not only by His Majesty, but by several of the leading musical institutions.
The programme includes more than one of his own works, and for this, a particularly interesting Fantasia on Melodies of our Indian Empire, we are indebted to Colonel Mackenzie-Rogan for the following helpful note.
This Fantasia is the first work in which an attempt has been made to clothe some of the beautiful melodies of India with European effects of harmony, counterpoint, and instrumentation. However incongruous the combination may appear to serious students of Indian music, it will be admitted that the tunes preserve their individuality, even in their Western garb, a proof of their virility and wealth of characteristic style.
After a few introductory bars based upon the most popular of all the Indian modes, the Fantasia opens with the tune of a hymn sung in praise of Vishnu. This impressive melody re-appears in the Finale, when it is accompanied by a majestic, contrapuntal bass. The Indian system is far more complex than our own, embracing seventy-two scales and an almost infinite number of Ragas (Râgs—' colours ' or ' emotions ').
The melodic material of the Fantasia played to-day is drawn from thirteen different melodies derived from various parts of India. Most of them are of great antiquity ; others are more modern. The order in which they occur is :—
Introductory bars, 2/2.
I. Hymn to Vishnu (common time).
2. Allegro (dance tune), 2/4.
3. Andante espressivo, 2/4.
4. Taza ba taza (6/8 Allegretto).
5. Allegro con brio, 3/4.
6. Allegretto scherzando, 2/4.
(A very popular tune.)
7. Andante (Hori) in 5/4 time.
(Sung at the Swinging Festival. It describes the life and virtues of Krishna.)
8. Allegretto, 3/4.
(A song of the Ram Pershad's, very popular with street beggars.)
9. Andante (love song) (common time).
10 and 11. Scherzo and trio based on two popular dance tunes.
12. Allegro Marziah (War Song) (C).
13. Finale, Hymn to Vishnu, combined with a phrase of 'God Save the King,' etc. (12/8 and common time).
The first act of Meyerbeer's opera on the subject of the massacre of the Huguenots is a banquet in the midst of which a message is brought from the Queen, Marguerite of Valois, to Raoul, one of the Huguenot nobles. Her Page sings, in a charming little air, that he has been sent by a great lady to lead Raoul to her presence. The Cavatina has always been popular and must have been heard by many who know no more of the opera than this one number. It used to be a soprano air, but the great Alboni made so big a success with it here in London, that Meyerbeer transposed the piece for a lower voice, and it has ever since been sung by a mezzo-soprano or contralto.*