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GIJiTED AMATEURS 261
fessional, but her genius was vocal, not dramatic, though
her temperament was highly strung and passionate in
music. What I mean is that she gave us not superb
reading aloud or acting or emotion in the words, but
uttered rapture or grief or pathos simply by means of the
voice... The words were indistinctly pronounced, but the
whole meaning of the song was given by the expression,
the singer being lost in the melody. On one unforgettable
occasion I took the bass part in some quartette singing
when she was the soprano, an admirable professional whose
name I forget was the alto, and Lionel Benson the tenor.
Mrs. Bob, as she was generally called, had a voice in which
the others felt as if they were imbedded, their best tone
being brought out and enriched as never before. I can
hear now the appealing pathos in the high part of " Ich
fahr dahin," by Brahms, the notes swelling out into a whole
world of pain at the words " vom Heiden muss ich leiden
Pein," and her power of interpreting the lilt of an exquisite
old English piece, " Love me true, dear lassie "-these
glories of part-singing are not to be described, The only
drawback to such a treat has been that all through the
thirty years, from that day to this, I have despaired of ever
being satisfied with any other artist's rendering of those
two melodies. The best we have ever furbished up has
been a poor song-echo of what is now no more.
Of superb and " revealing " amateur performances I
shall never forget Arthur Wade's singing "Barbara Allen"
at Hagley in 1867 (eire.), Lionel Benson's rendering of
"La Charmante Marguerite," a lovely song connected for
all time with Liza Lehmann, and songs by Billy Nicholls
(well known in the Savage Club) at Haileybury about
1898. He bewitched us with his utterly spontaneous
singing and accompaniment, though suffering from a very
bad cold.
There was some capital part-song work done by the
Free Forester Cricket Club, an account of which is to be
found in the Club's volume of A.nnal8. It arose· from
one Tom Ratliff, a born comedian but of no musical