My purpose this afternoon is not to attempt to say much that is new or original about this great English composer, but rather to introduce him to you as a song-writer and to let you hear some of his songs. For, strange as it may seem, Dowland is still in the position of requiring an introduction even to English musicians. His name is certainly rather more widely known than it was ten or twenty years ago, yet his songs are far too rarely to be found in concert programmes, and few singers seem to know more than about half a dozen of them. And apart from singers, a large section of the English musical world still remains in complete ignorance as to the value of his work. If anyone should dispute this statement let him turn to a certain important work of reference recently published where he will find Dowland briefly described as “an old English composer of considerable note in his time.” And it was my own experience only last month to be told by one of our leading English musicians that he “had a grudge against Dowland” for the reason that he started the fashion of writing part-songs for four voices and thus lowered the taste of singers and composers, alienating them from the cult of the madrigal. I granted at once that if Dowland had contributed nothing to music besides part-songs for four voices, beautiful though some of these are (and he probably was acquainted with nothing beyond “Now, O now” and “Awake, sweet love”), that contribution would not perhaps have immortalized his name; but I then elicited that my friend was absolutely and entirely ignorant of the bare fact that Dowland was a composer of solo songs!

The musical instrument known as a bag-pipe consists of a reeded chanter with holes for the performer's fingers to make the melody, one or more reeded drones to provide a continuous harmony, and a bag containing a supply of air.

Ancient Egypt in 1000 B.C. provides the earliest known example of the double reeded pipe. There is a Chinese tradition stating the discovery of a reeded pipe in B.C. 2585 by the Prime Minister to the Emperor Hoang-Ty. Even ancient Peruvian art has given us illustrations of the bagpipes.

I think I may claim that in this paper, whatever its defects, is a sign of the times. I doubt if in, shall we say, 1914, anyone could have envisaged a paper on the aspect of Verdi which I am going to stress, being read to the Musical Association at all. With the exception of “Otello” and “Falstaff,” and perhaps “Aïda,” Verdi's operas were either entirely dead or regarded as purely popular entertainments, remarkable only for their good tunes. In the meantime, however, there has been a great change. Since the war, the revival of what may be called serious interest in Verdi and his operas has been very marked. The extent of this revival is not perhaps fully realised in England, which, together with France has not yet experienced it to any great degree. But it has been very noticeable in Italy, the United States, and above all, in Germany. Perhaps a few facts would be of interest to you. Take Italy. Those of you who are familiar with the Italian musical tradition will know that what may be called an archaeological interest in music is the last thing in the world that appeals to the average Italian. When, as was certainly the case, Verdi's operas began to be viewed as old fashioned by the younger generation, their eventual doom seemed sealed. Doubtless Verdi retained his hold on the purely popular theatre, but the middle and upper classes showed signs of deserting en masse to Wagner, who is indeed probably the most popular composer in Italy to-day among the educated classes. There are now, however, distinct signs of a swing in the other direction. Thanks in a great measure to the genius and care of Toscanini, the orchestral as well as the vocal effectiveness of works like “La Traviata” have been emphasised anew.

Having occasion recently to study the early history of instrumental music, I was struck by the different course that those first developments took in the chief countries of Europe. I found that it was impossible to deal with the whole subject in one gulp. Each country had to be taken separately and approached from a different point of view, for in each what I might term the vital stream took a different course. To illustrate my meaning, the backbone of German music in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was the deep-rooted tradition of amateur music-making, which has lasted up to the present day in Germany as in no other country. The professional musicians of that period were largely foreigners, and although the exotic influences that they brought with them undoubtedly left their mark, it was the comparatively simple and essentially German music, written for the amateur, that bore the germ from which the great classical period sprang.

The history of music in North Britain1 during the Middle Ages may conveniently be divided into three periods: (1) The Beginnings (a.d. 563–1124), (2) The Anglo-Norman Period (a.d. 1124–1424), and (3) The Golden Age (a.d. 1424–1542).

Not long ago I happened to mention to a clever business woman who is an acquaintance of mine, that I proposed speaking on Hindemith. “What is Hindemith?” she replied, and by her manner I gathered she thought he was a new kind of Vim, Bovril, or Mothball from the Fatherland. I hastened to explain that, young though he is, Hindemith is the acknowledged leader of the “new music” and of those composers in Germany, who believe in a radical adaptation of music to modern needs and conditions. He is hailed as their chief, his compositions are chronicled, and his developments docketed, with a reverence and care thoroughly German. Outside Germany, on the other hand, he is known as the “enfant terrible” of Europe and his music frequently produces the same effect on his audiences as that produced by Browning's “Sordello” in old days on the jolly Philistine who said “There are only two lines in the poem I understand—the first one says: ‘Who will, may hear Sordello's story told, and the last one isn't true, for it says: ‘Who would has heard Sordello's story told.’”