CHESTNUT TREE GOES CLASSICAL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 191, 26 July 1940, Page 2

CHESTNUT TREE GOES CLASSICAL

The Czech composer, Jaromir Wein berger,- has written a Fugue and Variation on "Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree." It was presented recently in Australia, by Antal Dorati and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and listeners in New Zealand will probably hear it in due time. Here, in the words of its composer, is how it came to be written. "A newsreel," saj's Weinberger, "was my inspiration. In the summer of 1938 I went to a movie. In the newsreel nowadays you usually see dictators and very few honest people, so I Avas surprised to see something agreeable. I saw a Boys' Camp in England, many young people, and among them, in democratic simplicity, His Majesty the King. He Avas dressed in the same kind of SAveater as his young subjects and he joined them in the singing and laughing. They sang a Avonderful old folk tune. The song had not only very thrilling words, but an amazing, Avonderful tune; it is a socalled Gesture Song. At several points the music suddenly stopped, and His British Majesty, wi-th his loyal subjects, clapped his hands, jumped to his feet, and started a pantomime—finally joining again in singing the tunc to its end. I liked this whole scene much and T said to myself: "This is the thrime on Avhich you, Jaromir, shall Avrite Variations and a Fugue."* *

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