many programs without using any foreign tongues, even though many of the finest songs were originally written in them. Our speech, though richer than any other in its possibilities, has not been wisely used by those music publishers who seek to supply songs in foreign tongues with English versions. Instead of employing poets of musical tendency with a copious vocabulary and well-turned phrases at their command, the publishers seem to have committed German poems to men familiar enough with the original but not sufficiently conversant with English. This has resulted in operatic libretti and hundreds of songs being issued in a variety of translations, most of which are bad and some of them ludicrous. I have therefore sought out the best available versions, though my confrères seem unaware that many English and American poets have beautifully translated the German classics. I speak of German more particularly, because so much of the best vocal music is by Teutonic composers. While English-speaking poets of rank have translated German classics, the German composers have used the British poets. Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Robert Franz, and Loewe took words by Shakespeare, Burns, Scott, Byron, and Moore, turned into their own language, all of which are directly transferable to the original.

I also comment in my concerts on the subject of our language in song, giving "lecture recitals" which dwell upon the beauty of our native tongue. It would be as absurd for a lecturer before an English-speaking audience to give part of his discourse in French, part in German, and another part in Italian, as for a singer to expect unqualified welcome for songs in foreign languages which

he himself but imperfectly understands and which his audience does not understand at all.

The trouble has been, however, that the English language has not been properly taught in our schools. To all American singers I say, sing your songs in well-chosen English if singing to an English-speaking audience, and sing them so that every one understands your words; enunciate so clearly that the audience can tell even how every word is spelled. Get away from this foreign-language fad and you will find yourself nearer the heart of your public. I often quote from the 14th chapter of St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, where he says: "Now brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you? Even things without life, giving sound, as with pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sound, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken?" And the Apostle goes on to say, "I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue."

...

Realizing how often a one-man concert becomes trying to those accustomed to a greater variety of musical fare, I find such remarks are not only appreciated by the public, but are expatiated on by the press, which, I am glad to say, is almost entirely with me. I also indulge myself in a change of concert manners by staying on the platform after most of my groups of songs, instead of leaving it every few minutes; for, as I explain, letting