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FAMOUS SONGS
two examples. The rollicking and the humorous as contrasts abound in profusion. And, as Haydn declares: " It is the air which is the charm of music, and it is that which is most difficult to produce; patience and study are sufficient for the composition of agreeable sonnets, but the invention of a fine melody is the work of genius.'* And yet some of the world's finest melodies are the production of unknown and, in many cases, entirely simple and humble folk devoid of musical training.
Ireland*s patron Saint, Patrick, has naturally, been the subject of many excellent ballads, in-cluding " St. Patrick's Day in the Morning," said to have been written by a gentleman named Wood, who adopted the nam de plume of " Lanner de Waltram," a very frolicsome pro-duction indeed, largely concerned with the con-sumption of punch. " St. Patrick of Ireland, my Dear," adapted to the melody of " The night before Larry was Stretched/' first appeared in "Blackwood'sMagazine,"December, 1821. The author's name is not given. " St. Patrick was a Gentleman:" this is a very quaint anonymous production relating all the " miracles" that the Saint is credited with performing, and which many of the illiterate believe in implicitly. A drinking or toasting song to his saintship entitled," Saint
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