Introduction
Ethel Smyth (to rhyme with ‘blithe’) came home to England in 1880 after winning many friends among the musical celebrities of Leipzig, and found that she had become something of a celebrity herself. It took a visit from a neighbour to remind her that whether you are a Smyth or a Schubert, ‘celebrity’ is a relative term.
WHILE travelling with my mother I had been told about a charming newcomer in our neighbourhood whom she had as yet seen little of, but who was said to be very musical and looking forward to meeting the Leipzig daughter.
Knowing what ‘very musical’ amounts to in England expectation did not run high,* but on the day she had been asked to lunch I sat down at the piano, just for fun, as her dogcart drew up at the door, and began playing ‘Im Freien’, a Schubert song I was wild about just then.
Presently a very nice-looking woman of the smart sporting type was ushered in who cheerfully uttered the words:
“Ah! dear old Chopsticks!”*
A little unfair on the English. Maybe it was her London perspective. “Some day” said Edward Elgar twenty years later, in a letter to Canon Gorton of the Morecambe Music Festival, “the press will awake to the fact, already known abroad and to some few of us in England, that the living centre of music in Great Britain is not London, but somewhere further North.” See ‘Musical Times’, July 1903.
“The drawback of this anecdote” wrote Smyth “is that probably few serious musicians know ‘Chopsticks’, and the sort of people who know ‘Chopsticks’ are still less likely to know ‘Im Freien’.” Smyth therefore provided short excerpts from the sheet music; for recordings of each one, see below.
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See [getoffsitelink:https://oxfordsong.org/song/im-freien|Oxford International Song Festival] for the lyrics in German and English.
Précis
Ethel Smyth came home to England from Germany in 1880 with a reputation as a musical prodigy. One lady music enthusiast in the neighbourhood was keen to meet her, and as she rang the doorbell Ethel began playing a Schubert song for her. The lady was most appreciative, but to Ethel’s lasting amusement mistook the song for Chopsticks. (58 / 60 words)
Ethel Smyth came home to England from Germany in 1880 with a reputation as a musical prodigy. One lady music enthusiast in the neighbourhood was keen to meet her, and as she rang the doorbell Ethel began playing a Schubert song for her. The lady was most appreciative, but to Ethel’s lasting amusement mistook the song for Chopsticks.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, may, must, not, ought, since, unless, who.
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Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
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Express the ideas below in a single sentence. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 My. Nice. Our.
2 Musical. Present. Very.
3 But. High. While.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
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Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
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