THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 227, 29 October 1943, Page 2

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

MONDAY [N our younger days when strong words were a subject of childish curiosity, the more so if they were in another language we were always given to understand that there was some string of awful syllables that no polite little German boy would ever dare to utter at the table-it began with Donner, and it had something to do with Thunder. And now Station 2YH is going to play, at 9.25 p.m. on Monday, November 1, a piece of music by Mozart called Das Donnerwetter or "Thunder and Lightning." We had always understand that Mozart was "the divinely inspired," but it is not clear who inspired his divinities. Also worth notice: 2YA, 7.15 p.m.: "Tutira: a Microcosm of New Zealand" (Talk). 3YA, 9.25 p.m.: Music by Schumann, 4YA, 8.13 p.m.: Masterpieces of Music. TUESDAY HERE are invisible men in the Bible, and there is an invisible man in H, G. Wells. There are invisible men in dozens of old legends and fairy stories. Nearly every Irishman has run from an ‘invisible man once at least, and even ‘the Scots knew about them -while Scotand still was Scotland. So if you should go dancing one night and see young women cavorting round the room without any visible means of support, don’t be alarmed; they dance with the invisible men, This story must be true because 1YA is presenting "The Dance of the Invisible Men," played by the International Radio Orchestra, at 8.52 p.m. on Tuesday, November 2, and our artist has produced an actual illustration of this strange phenomenon. Also worth notice: 2YA, 8.40 p.m: Songs by Henry Purcell. 3YL, 8.25 p.m.: Piano Quintet. (Bloch). 4YO, 9.0 p.m.: Quartet in E Flat (Schubert). WEDNESDAY "ALL art constantly aspires towards the condition of music," said Walter Pater. Is it possible that he was thinking of all the musical terms that have been borrowed for the other arts? Writers in words have called their works by almost anything in musical terminology from dithyramb to fugue, and of course there is always Wordsworth’s Prelude (sometimes we wonder how long it would have taken to play had it really been music). But in these latter days we have seen Pater’s dictum reversed, and now)we have music in the literary manner, from "Poéme" by Fibich, to "Essay for Orchestra" by Samuel Barber. If you have never heard of this "Essay" that is because it is a newly-recorded work by a young American, which 3ZR Greymouth will play at 9.30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 3. An American musical journal says it has "brevity and conciseness and almost epigrammatic neatness." Montaigne and Hazlitt would have approved of it. Also worth notice: 1YA, 7.30 p.m.: Airs by A. Scarlatti (studio). 2YA, 7.30 p.m.: Songs of the Maori (studio). a 8.0 p.m.: Christchurch Male Voice

THURSDAY T 9.5 p.m. on Thursday, November 4, station 2YD will present a play by the New York Radia Guild called "The Legend of Cologne Cathedral." But before you break up the family circle by asking "How many eau’s in Cologne,’ you should hear this play that has "something different." Admittedly there is a touch of Faust about the’ architect who contracted with the devil in order to have his plans ready for the bishop in the agreed time, but even so, in this legend and the way it is acted

there is something out of the ordinary. Why the architect should have allowed the Fiend to plan a House of God, and what happened to the plans in the end, are questions that we leave the play to answer on Thursday evening next week. Also worth notice: 1YX, 8.24 p.m.: Clarinet Quintet (Brahms). 3ZR, 3.30 p.m.: A Few Minutes with Women Novelists. 4YA, 9.25 p.m.: Symphony No. 4 "Tragic" (Schubert).

FRIDAY ITH the idea of adding some local colour to the songs taught in primary and secondary schools, H. C. Luscombe, lecturer in music at the Auckland Teachers’ Training College, suggested to his advance students that they might write some verse suitable for setting to music. The immediate result was that two young teachers, Keith Sinclair and Bruce : Biggs, both now on active service, wrote verses on New Zealand subjects and Mr. Luscombe set them to music. Some-of these songs will be heard for the first time on Friday, November 5, when Gwenda Weir will sing them from 1YA to Mr. Luscombe’s piano accompaniment. More songs written by Training College students, young teachers and others, with music by Mr. Luscombe, will be heard from the same station the following Friday. Also ‘worth notice: 2YA, 8.30 p.m.: BBC Brains Trust session. 2YH, 5.0 p-m.: Hukarere Maori Girls’ College Choir (studio). 3YA, 8.10 p.m.: Songs by Liza Lehmann (studio). SATURDAY RTHACOUSTIC, a word that does not appear in any dictionary we possess, may make most of our reader’s eyes goggle for a moment, but those who know some Greek understand that it

means "right hearing" or some such thing. At all events it is the word that appears on the labels of some special American recordings that studio 3YA uses every Saturday morning between 9 and 10 o’clock. They are 16 inches wide and they rotate 33 1-3 times a minute instead of the usual 78. They are made for broadcasting only, and we understand that their reproduction is of exceptional fidelity, bass and treble being faithfully preserved. The entire hour’s programme comes from these records, and all the artists are American, Also worth notice: 1YA, 8.0 p.m.: Auckland Choral Society. 2YC, 8.0 p.m.: Royal Wellington Choral Union. 3YL, 8.0 p.m.: Music by Mozart. SUNDAY T is not many jumps from a storm to a tea-cup and then to a kettle, so the title of the recorded play, Storm in Kettle Creek may be considered appropriate. The storm occurred in the "Chic Library," Kettle Creek, and like the proverbial tea-cup trouble it was very much a fuss over nothing. The owner of the library was yotng and beautiful, the elite of Kettle Creek society were hide-bound and respectable. It was small wonder the library flopped. But the young librarian had admirers: one admirer was an F.S.LA. (for the un-initiated-a Fellow of the Snitzel Institute of Advertisers) and when these admirers put their heads together Kettle Creek was taken by storm. But to hear how the storm arose, how it gathered force and finally erupted like a bubble, listeners will have to tune in to 4YZ at 9.25 p.m. on Sunday, November 7. Also worth notice: 1¥X, 9.0 p.m.: Symphony No. 2 (Beethoven). 2YA, 9.42 p.m.: Violin Concerto in E Minor (Mendelssohn). 3YA, 8.15 p.m.: French Opera from Lully to Pierne. =