THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 161, 24 July 1942, Page 2

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

machine so there is a musician behind every instrument, and every time we see the word "oboe" in the programmes we shall now be reminded that there, but for the Grace of God and the lack of £14, goes Bernard Shaw. And oboes figure prominently in the programmes. this week, notably in the Sinfonia to the Church Cantata No. 156 for Strings and Oboe, one item in an organ recital of "Bach" to be given from 3YA on Friday, July 31, at 7.30 p.m., by Dr, J. C. Bradshaw. One Who Remembers Readings from the works of the Persian poet Hafiz will be presented from 1YA on July 31 by Judith Terry, Country drama tutor for the Advisory Council of Adult Education. The fact that no other Persian poet was as fortunate in his translator as Omar Khayyam was in Fitzgerald explains why Khayyam is so well known and other Persian poets are so neglected. Mrs, Terry’s attention was first directed to Hafiz (more esteemed as a poet by his fellow-countrymen than Khayyam, who was primarily a mathematician) by the Shavian gibe, "Aha! Fitzgerald and his mock-persian lamb!" And she found Hafiz good enough to warrant a wider audience. Incidentally, Hafiz ("One-who-remembers") was the pen-name of | Shams-ud-din-Mohammed, who was born about 1300 and died in 1388, as there is a man behind the Everybody Sing ‘ Just as most women like nothing better than to have a good cry at the pictures, so most men, when they get together, like to have a good sing, But it is not always so easy nowadays for enough to get together in the one place at the one time, so the evening programme from 2YA on Wednesday should fill a long-felt want, if we may be original. At 8.30 there will be a session of "Sociable Songs" by the Chorus Gentlemen, and judging by the reception this feature has had so far, the chorus gentlemen please. Isolated or lonely males can join in the choruses in the Privacy of their own homes. "Sociable Songs" will be followed by "Songs Without Words"., If you don’t like to hum you can get the supper ready, or better still, go and have a bath until 9.25 when "Let the people Sing" will be on the air and you can again let yourself go properly, in songs of to-day and yesterday, not to mention songs with a lilt and songs of the people. Saxophone Surprise Were we told that Handel played the wurlitzer or that Beethoven conducted a jazz-band in his spare time, that Pavlova was a jitterbug or that Wagner composed songs for crooners, we could hardly have been more surprised than we were to find that Debussy wrote for the saxophone. In this case the inspiration was Mrs. Hall of Boston who, herself an accomplished saxophonist, the organiser of the Boston Orchestral Club, and a patron of French music, commissioned Debussy to write the Rhap-

sody for Orchestra and Saxophone. Whether you like the saxophone best or Debussy best you will be interested to hear this work which will be played from 2YA on Sunday, August 2. Scribes and Fiery Seers Since indignation seems to be the inevitable accompaniment ‘of literary effort (just read the letters in the papers) the feature "Moments of Indignation Among English Writers", which 3YA proposes to present on Friday week, can hardly be said to show us a new thing, but it should at Imast be diverting.

Every schoolboy has (we feel sure) been diverted by Macaulay’s vicarious indignation on behalf of Johnson-‘The insolence of booksellers (was it bookmakers?), the derision of fools, the deferred hope", etc. Swift was indignant most of the time, Milton often, Pope congenitally. And what of Sir Thingummy Jig? "Death!" remarked Sir Thingummy Jig "Bring me a pen and ink, Bring me a fair white writing-pad And something strong to drink. And wrap a towel about my head And don’t let anyone in, For I must write.to ‘The Times’ to-night, And save the world from sin." And now that we’ve drawn your attention to "Moments of Indignation," it might be just as well if we drew the attention of all indignant English writers to the talk which Miss D. E. Dolton will

give from the same station next Monday, "What About that Temper?" Well, what about it? First Things Last We have always entertained the highest respect for the advice given by the A.C.E., but the title of the talk from 4YA on Friday, July 31 at 3.15, "Making Clothing Last", is too severe a trial for our faith. Does the A.C.E. expect us to set to work to make farming pay, both ends meet, and the world safe for democracy before we even begin to fashion garments to cover our nakedness? An arrantly unseasonable suggestion, we protest, for now that the biting winds of winter are sweeping down on ug, clothing is not a subject for jokes. Diamonds for Scholarships The nineteenth Century threw up few stranger Englishmen than Cecil Rhodes, the consumptive dreamer who made one of the greatest fortunes in the world and dedicated it to the education of _ earnest young nordics who would, so he hoped, irradicate the warmth of Oxford culture in the far places of the earth. His determination that Britain should annex those parts of Africa now known as Rhodesia, his hope for the linking of north and south under the British flag by an All Red Railway, his arrogance, his tactlessness, his idiosyncrasies, his energy, his vision, these will be the subject of the "Cavalcade of Empire" feature which will be heard from 2YA on Sunday, August 2, at 4 p.m. Peter the Great at Ten We may picture Peter the Great leading his armies to victory against the Swedes, or ruthlessly crushing revolts, or even occupied with unpicking locks and clocks, breaking up furniture or hobnobbing with shipbuilders and sailors, but it is not so easy to see him as a sweet and | innocent little boy of ten, But then not all little boys of ten are sweet and innocent, and Peter was probably among the hardened variety. He appears as a boy of ten in Moussorgsky’s opera "Khowantchina" which deals with the family struggles for the throne in the years before Peter himself was strong enough to dispatch inconvenient members of his family to cloister or grave. The Persian dances from this opera may be heard from 1YA on Friday, July 31. oe