THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 63, 6 September 1940, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

ITH folk songs and lore for their material, instead of jazz, Joan and Betty Rayner have made a great success of a new sort of entertainment in their travels.round the world. They are expected shortly in New Zealand and, if all goes weil, will give their first broadcast from 1YA at 9.45 p.m. on Wednesday, September 11. Their lighthearted entertainment is built up round the plays, songs, ballads, sea chanties, and poems of every nation. These they arrange to suit their purpose and dramatise them into a variety show as entertaining and clever as it is novel. In America they won their first success, and followed it by establishing a specialist little theatre in Sydney. Tours followed those first ventures and the pair are now securely established. They are New Zealanders. Chungking Part of James Bertram’s talk on "Five Chinese Capitals," which is to be repeated from 4YA at 7.30 p.m. on Monday, September 9, covers the City of Chungking, built on and in a rocky promonotory far inland in China. There the Chiang Kai-Shek Government retreated as the Japanese advanced along the

coast. There it organised its new supply lines as the Japanese cut off its sources by sea. Now it is threatened once again. From closer bases the Japanese. are bombing this impromptu Capital, and they are closing in upon Chungking’s tenuous lines of trade with the outside world. Mr. Bertram’s description of this key position is, for the Chungking Government, uncomfortably topical. Artists and Teachers We have already heard a>talk about "Things as Seen by an Artist.’ Now we are to be given "Things as Seen by an Art Teacher" from 3YA at 7.32 p.m. on Wednesday, September 11. It may be safe, therefore, to assume that there is some difference between the two points of view. The art teacher, no doubt, sees his squares in perspective, while

the artist, very often, rebels against such pedantic learning and sees his perspectives in squares. The small boy in our illustration has evidently made his mistake at the other extreme; he has been too accurate, and will probably be punished. All this may seem irrelevant, but it all goes to show how difficult it must be to be an art teacher, and how interesting it will be to hear Bruce Dawber and G. L. Campbell tell us all about it. Coat of Arms An embittered nature lover in the north of New Zealand, who spent quite a lot of his time every summer rescuing pohutakawa trees from picnickers, said that the coat of arms of New Zealand should be an axe and a box of matches. Certainly the hack and burn policy has had grievous results in our history; we have tragically squandered a noble estate. On the other hand, we must have timber, and the getting of it has called forth a great deal of skill and hard, sweating, and often dangerous work, The bushman is a technician greatly to be admired. Listeners will learn something about the better side of this great industry in the "Background of New Zealand" talk at 2YA on September 9, when an historical review of it, prepared by Martin Nestor, will be broadcast. 100 X’s This heading, we hasten to explain, is not a waif and stray from the puzzle page, but a reminder that if you tune in to"1YA Auckland at 9.10 p.m. on Friday, September 13, you will hear the London Philharmonic Orchestra, under Antal Dorati, play d’Erlanger’s "Les Cent Baisers,’ or "The Hundred

Kisses." This charming music was composed by Frederic d’Erlanger, who was born in Paris in 1868, of an American mother and a German father, but further complicated his background by becoming a naturalised British subject. That has not, however, hampered his progress in music, and he is widely known as the composer of operas and other works, Grand Old Man Camille Saint-Saens is known as the Grand Old Man of French music. He appeared before the public for seventy years. When he was only ten years old he gave piano recitals in Paris and astonished his audience by playing without music. He was a firm friend of Gounod’s, who came from the same quarter in Paris. You will hear "Bacchanale," from his "Samson and Delilah," played by the Boston Promenade Orchestra at 9.51 p.m. on Tuesday, September 10, from 2YA Wellington. Choirs and Choristers First-class sacred music has been regularly available to listeners only through the devotional services. As from last Sunday, a special period every Sunday afternoon is being given up to it by 2YA. The second selection of "In Quires and Places Where They Sing," will be broadcast on September 8 at 2.45 p.m. Although each selection will be designed to give the widest appeal, the source of material is the best available. Listeners will hear such famous choirs.

as those in Temple Church, London, Salisbury Cathedral, St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, St. Paul’s, and the BBC Choir. There will also be organ and vocal solos. Local choirs will often be able to listen to anthems they sing themselves, and to hear how they are treated by worldfamous choirs. Thought for Food "What: shall. we eat?" What indeed? Advice ranges from the full meat-and-pudding-meal down toa diet of grass, and where there are so many counsellors there is apt to be confusion. Yet there never was a time. when people were so ‘anxious to get sound advice. It was with these conditions in mind that the NBS arranged with Dr. Elizabeth Bryson to record a series of talks on diet, and when these were heard from 2YA some months ago they attracted much attention. The basis of Dr. Bryson’s talks is the epoch-making nutrition report of the

League of Nations. She is no extreme faddist, but takes a common-sense and practical view of the choosing and cooking of food. Now 4YA Dunedin is broadcasting this important series of talks; "The First Food" is the title of the one to be heard at 7.30 p.m. on Friday, September 13. Horace Although the technological age has not treated him with much _ respect, Horace is one of the great popular figures in the history of the world’s literature. Whenever an Englishman has been able to bring himself to the point of quoting outside his own literature, it has been Horace to whom he has turned first. Classical scholars of all nations have found in Horace their most prolific source of the beloved Latin tag. He started life as the son of a freed.slave, suffered some reverses of fortune in the troubles following the murder of Julius Cesar, but ended his life in comfort, on a Sabine farm granted to him in recognition of his poetry by Maecenas, one of the ministers of Octavianus. Dr. K. J. Sheen will discuss this sort of Latin Shakespeare in 4YA’s Winter Course series at 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 10.