THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 70, 25 October 1940, Page 8

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

HERE was war in Europe .] while Chopin wrote his noc- , turnes, war in Europe while Beethoven wrote his symphonies and overtures, and war in Europe while Brahms wrote his concertos. The guillotine was chopping heads, Napoleon was marching across the continent, Bismarck was playing tricks with telegrams, and yet this music was written. Still there is war in Europe, still there is this music, and still there is an Ignaz Friedmann to play it for us. With a piano Friedmann achieves a beauty of simplicity and detachment which makes of his much-loved music something that stands aside, lives, and goes on living whatever else comes and goes in the clash and crash of nations at war. His genius as a pianist, and the genius of the composers he interprets with such secure belief are relics of the Age of Romanticism still buoyant in the age of realism. The itinerary for his broadcasts and public performances appears on page 13. La Donna E Mobile Although we cannot be sure until 11 a.m. on Saturday, November 1, it sounds ‘at the moment very much as if Mrs. Mary Scott is going to make an apology for her sex from 1YA. In the sixth talk of her series, "The Morning Spell," she is going to discuss "Changing One’s Mind." We have known the smug,, infuriating satisfaction with which women disarmingly admit that they are fickle

by instinct and changeable by preference, but we did not expect any such public admission. However, Mrs. Scott is neither smug, nor infuriating; | although it must be admitted she is often disarming; and it may well be that she will convince even male listeners, if any are free at the time from the cares of gardening or golf, that it is sometimes a good thing to decide to do the other thing. Is it too much to suggest, as a male sort of joke, that Mrs. Scott shoul be persuaded to talk of something else at the last minute? Snags in the Village Life runs pretty smoothly in the. village. There are various traditions. It is not correct to wear collar and tie in the garden. Birds are fed carefully, and everyone watches to see that no nuisance is caused by fires, radio sets, or other evils of civilisation. But sometimes,

mostly at holiday times, snags arrive, with cats that eat the birds and larrikins that steal the plants, and nuisances who make the night hideous with loud speakers. "Just Snags" is the title of Major F. H. Lampen’s next talk in 2YA’s morning session on Thursday, October 21, at 10.45 a.m. It covers Life Without Snags, Life With Snags, and incidentally, How to Deal with Snags. He Was Not Known Then In Auckland district there used to live a music teacher who had been a pupil of Smetana. The old man was intensely proud of this association, and probably intensely expectant of the fame and fortune it might bring to him in his profession. But Smetana then was just another foreign name, and the NBS officer who tells us this story says that knowledge of the great was not useful to a man in whose profession it is much more. profitable to know the famous. But now Smetana is recognised for what he was: the father of a fine tradition carried on for Czech music by Dvorak. Smetana is a prominent figure in the historical background to Czech music which 2YA will. broadcast at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 27. An_ interview with the author of the script for the programme appears on Page 17. Labour It is possible that there are many New Zealandets now enjoying good conditions of labour without maintaining the processes that led up to them, It may not be generally known, for instance, that nearly one hundred years ago in Wellington a successful stand

was made for the eight-hour day principle. In the last of the "Background of New Zealand" series for 2YA on Labour Day, October 28 at 7.30 p.m., there is to be a-review of labour conditions in New Zealand during the last century. The talk will be prepared by Martin Nestor. Personal Item _After as strenuous a season as any musician could want or last through in one piece, Andersen Tyrer has gone south from Wellington for a few weeks’ rest. During the two years he has been in New Zealand this time he has been exceptionally busy, and the Centennial tour, with its constant training of new talent and rehearsing was a considerable strain. His name will be out of the programmes during November, but there is still Maurice Clare to keep the NBS String Orchestra in the forefront of organised musical performance in New Zealand. He will conduct the orchestra in a studio concert from 2YA beginning at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, October 29. Mrs, Wilfred Andrews is the soloist. Thus and Thus A series of four talks titled "Pros and Cons in the Family," will discuss some of the topics about the training of children that often arouse arguments in the family. Opinions differ, say, as to whether time will cure John’s bad habit, or whether something must be done about it at once. Who.is right? What is to decide? Is mother right because she is more with the children, or

is father right because he sees less of them and can take a more detached view? Or is there some standard to guide our decisions. Miss D. E. Dolton will discuss some of the points that are now available to guide our decisions. She hopes sometimes to be joined at the microphone by parents who will give their views. Those who listened in groups last year will find fresh material for discussion in this series. Next week this item is listed for 3YA at 7.15 p.m. on Friday, November 1. Nutrition A cable from London last week quoted "The Times" as reporting the opinions of two French scientists, that the children of France were in extreme danger from malnutrition. For lack of Vitamin A, the lives of three-quarters were endangered, and all would be more susceptible to infectious diseases. It is unthinkable that such conditions should ever occur in New Zealand; but any school health inspector will say that they do

occur, not often, perhaps, for lack of food, but very often, surely, for lack of knowledge about the proper use of food. Bad teeth, crooked joints, malformations tell the tale later. Busy campaigning to teach people how to avoid malnutrition are the A.C.E. people in Dunedin. Another of their useful talks will be broadcast by 4YA on Wednesday, October 30, at 3.15 p.m. It is titled "The Cost of Food Nutrition." More About Boswell Macaulay tells us that Dr. Johnson is better known to us than any other man in history. "Everything about him, his coat, his wig, his figure, his face, his scrofula, his St. Vitus’s dance, his rolling walk.\, ." It is true that we do know Johnson extraordinarily _ well, whereas we know little about Shakespeare. Johnson happened to make a friend and confidant of James Boswell, who wrote what is generally considered to be the best biography in the language. It is two hundred years this month since Boswell was born, and 2YA will mark the> bi-centennial with a talk on Sunday afternoon, October 27 at 3.10 p.m. The exact date of the anniversary is October 29. The speaker, will be Ian Gordon, Professor of English at Victoria University College. Like James Boswell, Professor Gordon is a Scot, and he was educated at the same school as Boswell, Edinburgh High School.