Evening star., 1903-07-04
WILHELM II ON VOCAL MUSIC
He Tells the Frankfort Singers Ia
Stick to German Volkslieder
From the London Standard.

From the London Standard
gentlemen, have called you together.
nrst OF all to express my qualification that
SO many choirs accepted the invitation to
compete. This fact proves the interest
that Is taken in Germany in singing L
must, however, draw your attention to
some points noticed not only by myself, but
by almost the whole audience The pr,n-
cipal object of your choirs should be to
cultivate the Volkslied. Now the compost
tons presented by you have had very littls
to do with the Volkslied so deeply rooted IN
our nation. Your choirs approached rather
colossal tasks, which, admit have In part
been accomplished quite admirably; for we
have all been astonished to see how 30
many hundreds of hard-working men have
succeeded, by means Of unselfish devouoa,
in overcoming such difficulties as must have
presented themselves in learning the pieces
performed here.
Il must urgently warn you not to go on
trying, as you do, to emulate the philha--
monte choirs. Your male voice societies
as L have already remarked should have
another object in view namely the culti-
walton of the Volkslied. Of real Volksleider
you have given very little. Why did YOU
not let us hear those dear old songs Who
Built Thee Up, oh, Beautiful Forestg or
L Had a Comrade Once or Three Lads
Wandered Over the Rhine which all of US
would have been delighted to listen TO?
But 1t was not only the musical part OF
your songs which failed to satisfy me: the
text OF your words, also. was unSatisfac-
tory through being too long. 1t is all very
well that you should, as you do take your
text from old kaiser sagas and similar
themes; but the music and the words must
harmonize together. Do not attempt 'tone
coloring or to initiate orchestral instru-
mentation. On the other hand, you must
not be too lyrical The Germans soul is
tal Int
manly deeds. sentmentaism is out of
place. You will have remarked that when
your songs grew more energetic and manly
you instantly received great applause. You
viii be interested to hear from the judges
of the competition that almost two-thirds
of your choirs started their songs too high,
and ended them fiat, by as much as a tone
and a quarter 1t was quite a pleasure
now and again to hear choir starting so
low as to produce the impression that there
was an adequate reserve of voice.
We'll, l shall try my best in future to
improve all this by having a careful selec-
ton made of all German national songs
written in Germany. Austria and Switzer-
land no matter whether by known or ur-
known composers. l shall have this collec-
ton catalogued and sold to your choirs at
a cheap price, that you will be able to
make a good selection of songs We ara
on the Rhine, and not single choir has
given US typical Rhenish songs 'Drei Bur-
schen. Joachim Hans Won Zeiten' or Fred
ericus Rex We have composers of song
like Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Abt and
yet no composition of theirs has been heard.
Here are at Frankfort, and yet the fa-
nous national song composed by KALI
wod'a, that son OF Frankfort, / mean 'Das
Deutsche Lied has been passed over.
Il have also deliberated on the subject
with the adjudicators, and the chief of my
civil cabinet will presently read out the
conclusions at which they have arrived. and
they coincide with mine. Gentlemen. l ex-
pect you to follow my advice. l have gone
through the lists of the members of the
various choirs and rejoice to find so mary
real workers among them. But 1t must
cost them sleepless nights to study all these
difficult songs and to perform them so ad-
mirably. No doubt a high musical talent
attaches to our people; but be sure that you
will yourselves have much greater pleasure
in singing If you adhere to the Volksliea
proper"