Singer and Accompanist—The Exposition of Fifty Songs. By Gerald Moore.
(Methuen. 25s.) OF the many great singers whose names spring to mind at the mention of Wigmore Hall or Gerald Moore (for to many people they are almost synonymous), two at least, Lotte Lehmann and Harry Plunket Greene, have published valuable studies on the interpretation of songs. For the most part, however, their approach was that of the singer, as was their intended readersh o. Although Mr. Moore's fifty studies are full of profound technical advice on the way accompaniments, as the structural founda- tions of songs, should be played, they will also commend themselves to singers, since the singer-accompanist partnership is here presented as it always should be—a fifty- fifty affair.
Written with the passionate devotion and the all too rare practical clarity of the expert, this book will also command the attention of the general reader whose musical appreciation perhaps outstrips his knowledge. He will discover the humour and humility of great artistry and will wonder how our Victorian forbears could have been so • musically insensitive as to rate the art of accompany- ing no higher than a drawing-room pastime which woula-not tax the abilities of elegant young ladies of leisure.
D. G.
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