The "Paradox" song, from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, sung by Peter Dawson, Derek Oldham, and Dorothy Gill.

RUTH: When you had left our pirate fold, We tried to raise our spirits faint, According to our custom old, With quips and quibbles quaint. But all in vain the quips we heard, We lay and sobbed upon the rocks, Until to somebody occurred A startling paradox.

FREDERIC: A paradox?

KING: (laughing) A paradox!

RUTH: A most ingenious paradox! We've quips and quibbles heard in flocks, But none to beat this paradox! A paradox, a paradox, A most ingenious paradox! Ha! ha! ha! ha! Ha! ha! ha! ha!

KING: We knew your taste for curious quips, For cranks and contradictions queer; And with the laughter on our lips, We wished you there to hear. We said, "If we could tell it him, How Frederic would the joke enjoy!" And so we've risked both life and limb To tell it to our boy.

FREDERIC: (interested). That paradox? That paradox?

KING and RUTH: (laughing) That most ingenious paradox! We've quips and quibbles heard in flocks, But none to beat this paradox! A paradox, a paradox, A most ingenious paradox! Ha! ha! ha! ha! Ho! ho! ho! ho! CHANT—KING
For some ridiculous reason, to which, however, I've no
desire to be disloyal, some person in authority, I don't
know who, very likely the Astronomer Royal, has
decided that, although for such a beastly month as
February, twenty-eight days as a rule are plenty, one
year in every four his days shall be reckoned as nine and
twenty. Through some singular coincidence—I
shouldn't be surprised if it were owing to the agency of
an ill-natured fairy—you are the victim of this clumsy
arrangement, having been born in leap-year, on the
twenty-ninth of February, and so, by a simple
arithmetical process, you'll easily discover, that though
you've lived twenty-one years, yet, if we go by
birthdays, you're only five and a little bit over! RUTH: Ha! ha! ha! ha!

KING: Ho! ho! ho! ho!

FREDERIC: Dear me! Let's see! (counting on fingers) Yes, yes; with yours my figures do agree!

ALL: Ha! ha! ha! ho! ho! ho! ho!

FREDERIC: (more amused than any) How quaint the ways of Paradox! At common sense she gaily mocks! Though counting in the usual way, Years twenty-one I've been alive, Yet, reck'ning by my natal day, Yet, reck'ning by my natal day, I am a little boy of five!

RUTH/KING: He is a little boy of five! Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!

ALL: A paradox, a paradox, A most ingenious paradox! Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!


Peter Smith Dawson, born on January 31, 1882, in Adelaide, South Australia, was one of his generation's most versatile singers.

He made superb records of operatic arias, oratorio solos, sentimental ballads, upbeat popular songs, and parlor tunes.

He possessed an incredibly rich bass-baritone voice. He was deft at interpretation, and his enunciation was spectacular.

He came from a humble background. His father was Thomas Dawson, ironworker and plumber.

Peter Dawson sang as a boy soprano at a social at the College Park Congregational Church, St Peters, and was later in the St Andrew's Presbyterian Church choir.

In 1902, Dawson moved to London and studied with Charles Santley and others.

On 20 May 1905 he married Annie Mortimer Noble, a soprano with the stage name of Annette George. They had no children.

He was incredibly popular as a recording artist. He could have enjoyed more success on the stage as an opera singer had he made a stronger effort with opera companies. In 1909, he appeared at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as the Night Watchman in Richard Wagner's Mastersingers of Nuremberg--one time he did appear in opera.

But he realized a career in opera would not have been nearly as lucrative as the one he chose--as a concert and oratorio singer. Making records fit perfectly with this choice. Had he been born in an earlier generation, this career of concert singer balanced with recording work would not have been available. He was born at the right time, taking advantage of recording opportunities that came his way, his voice "right" for the recording technology evolving in the years Dawson was in peak form (his voice never really declined until the 1950s).

In 1904 he made a test record for the Edison Bell Phonograph Co., and later that year began a long career (five decades) for HMV--that is, His Master's Voice.

During World War II until 1947, Dawson lived in Sydney. During the war he sang for the troops and on recruiting drives in Australia and elsewhere.

He wanted to retire after the war but the income from singing (and recording) continued to prove alluring. He continued to give his time and talent to recording studios long after others might have retired.

Dawson died on September 27, 1961, in Sydney.




Gilbert & Sullivan The Pirates of Penzance "A Paradox" Peter Dawson, Derek Oldham leap year song

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