PLEA FOR LIGHT RELIEF

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22521, 1 October 1938, Page 12

PLEA FOR LIGHT RELIEF

FBy LISTENER]

During the week an inquiry came from a correspondent interested in the whereabouts of Mr Randolph Cressy. “We could do with some of his alcoholic lunacy now,” the writer '•aid. Well, I’m afraid I don’t know where Mr Cressy is. The last I heard of him he had been sent into exile, and as far as I know he has remained there. Still, one must agree that light relief in radio would not be out of place these days. The dosage of news from Europe is not exactly invigorating, and there is a definite point of danger in those Daventry broadcasts. Many people are inclined to listen to them hurriedly and breathlessly, and sometimes the background noise makes it possible for the one ear listeners to get a garbled version of the message. I nave been told by five separate persons within a week that war was declared. When I sought authority for the statement Daventry was quoted on each occasion. What happens, of course, is easy to understand: somebody hears the word “war” mentioned, and without waiting further, the listener complete? the message according to taste. If the Daventry “jitters” is at all a widespread complaint, it is due simply to people not listening to the broadcasts coolly. Speaking in a general way, it would be pleasant if the broadcasting authorities were able to devise some new programme features which would help to distract listeners in anxious days. For example, I would on any night this week have liked to hear something like “The Hell With It,” an anthology of American humour which w.as produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation last month. A good deal of the material came from the “New Yorker,” a much funnier and snappier magazine than “Punch.” There were contributions from various American writers, but what I would have cared to hear most was Dorothy Parker’s essay about a jilted girl. A melancholy theme, no doubt, but Dorothy Parker would have put a few laughs into it. She is astonishingly successful in guying morbidity. Here’s an example entitled “Cherry White”:

I never see that prettiest thing— A cherry bough gone white with

Spring— But what I think, “How gay ’twould be To hang me from a flowering tree.”

While that is not presented as an outrageously sample comic, it will serve as a slender thread to lead me to a main theme. It seems to me that if new and better comedy is wanted on the air, literature of assorted kinds will have to be drawn on deeply. Now, I’m going to be magnanimous enough to say that those who want “Dad and Dave from Snake Gully,” and those other two old favourites, which I won’t even mention by name, they are entitled to have them. Unrelieved years of such listening will almost' certainly destroy the taste, but the probability is that some other corruptive agent would be found if radio were not available. However, there are other licenceholders whose cause I should like to advance. The appeal of literary humour may be restricted, but there are enough listeners who would appreciate it to justify such sessions, and there would always be the chance, too, that some converts would be won for the appreciation of good things. What I suggest is merely an extension of the reading sessions, but as far as I can see it would provide an answer to that question: where is comedy to come from? A week or so ago I was reading a novel by Ivor Brown. It had many glorious passages, including, one in which the founder of a school for Triumphant Living was standing on the shores of Greece preparing for a plunge into the waters upon which the eyes of Homer had gazed. He was posing with muscles rippling in the sunshine. His deep and reverential reverie was broken only by the arrival of a tourist who, mistaking him for a statue of Adonis, was preparing to cut initials on what %he considered to be a suitable part \ the statue’s anatomy. Many would he able to laugh at \ v things if they heard them I know the difficulty of i-''“copyright, but this is a matter capable of eagy and not too expensive adjustment.

Samuel Butler’s Music

A correspondent in Western Samoa has forwarded an interesting suggestion meriting the attention of some enterprising programme organiser, or of the National Broadcasting Service itself. Any way, this is what “P.W.G.” said: “In the early days of New Zealand Canterbury was honoured by the presence of Samuel Butler, a man of undoubted genius and great originality of thought; and since the name of Samuel Butler has become illustrious, the. province has basked mildly in the reflected glory of ‘Erewhon.’ I may be correct if I say that there are not a great many people in New Zealand who know much about his books, his theories on life and heredity, on the authorship of the Odyssey, and on many other interesting topics of art, religion, music, literature, and science. There are probably fewer who know his music, or indeed, that he wrote any. If you are at all interested in that versatile genius, you will remember that, in collaboration with Mr H. Feasting Jones, he composed:— “(1) A Book of Gavottes, Minuets, and Fugues, and other short Pieces for the Piano” (published by Novello. 1885). “(2) ‘Narcissus: A Cantata in the Handelian Form’ (published by Weekes. 1888). “(3) TJlvsses: An Oratorio’ (published, after Butler’s ' death, by Weekes, 1904).” For my*owri part I know, 1 suppose. as much about Butler as the average Canterbury man. I have had a browse through the Erewhon books; have something akin to affection for the “Notebooks.” and I once read “The Wav of All Flesh” as a holiday task. Probably 1 push! to have been able to give the right answer, but had anybody asked me if Butler wrote musi> T.-wo” 1 ' 1 have answered wrong, What> “P.W.G.” •uggests is that 3YA should devote S concert session to these works, or a selection from them. Butler, b* Course, was a Handel enthusiast and his music would- be strongly marked by the master’s influence, but nobodv could.be the worse for a touch of Handel. The idee strikes me as being entirely excellent. It may not be an easy matter to obtain conies ;of the works without a search.

but the difficulty is not insuperable. Some manuscript copying is all that is necessary, for there are probably copies af these music publications in the Kinsey section of the Turnbull Library.

Political Competition Another correspondent forwards a complaint and I do not feel inclined to reproduce exactly the terms in which he expressed it. He criticises what he describes as the “hogging” of the air by the politicians. For practically three weeks the main national stations are being monopolised and the ordinary programme feat’:res are being put on from the subsidiary stations, satisfactory reception from which is available over a greatly limited area. From my own experience I can say that certain items I have wanted to hear have had to be given up because a relayed election speech was on the air. I resented that. Perhaps one result is that some listeners are being forced into the arms of the non-poli-tical commercial stations for the first time. Musical High-spots There are two interesting items for listeners interested in music on the programmes for the coming week. To-morrow evening Mr Paul Schramm, n pianist who is already known in New Zealand, will plav his own suite. “Javanese Visions,” from 4YA. On Wednesday Alan Loveday will give a recital from 3YA. and those who have already heard this boy in the flesh, or on the air, will probably agree that he is the most promising violinist New Zealand has produced so far.