THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 235, 24 December 1943, Page 2

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

MONDAY \WHo plays cricket these days, and who looks on? Wellington province plays Auckland province, we know from the programmes, and a section at least of the Wellington public will look on. But will anybody from Auckland look on? Is a representative match still exciting enough to bring spectators 400 miles in the middle of a world war? Apparently it is exciting enough to a sufficient number of people to justify frequent broadcasts, but is that for those who can’t be preSent or for those who refyse to be? We don’t know. All we can say is that no one need remain ignorant of the progress of this match if he really wishes to know how it is going. Station 2YA will keep you in touch if you listen. If you refuse to listen-well it is not for us to tell you that you are no gentleman, but we shall refuse to quote Kipling in your defence. Also worth notice: 2YA, 11.0 a.m.: Women of Britain (BBC talk). : 3YA, 7.15 p.m.: "The Maori and His Greenstone" (talk). 4XA, 8.17 p.m.: Holberg Suite (Grieg). TUESDAY FPORTUNES are made from many things-from oil, and peanuts, and "certs" for the 2.30, and human gullibility in general. But if we analysed all these things, we would find that most fortunes have been made simply from the skilful use of Suspense. Take the Motion Picture Industry alone. What else draws children Saturday afternoon after Saturday afternoon to the theatre but the awful feeling of suspense for the hero hanging six feet over a cliff by his braces. And what else causes phenomenal sales in "thriller" literature and serial stories in monthly papers? Suspense in Wall Street must have made millions for the cautious buyer. So if you want to make a fortune, just corner the market for suspense. But if you like Suspense for its own sake, listen in to 2YD on Tuesday, December 28, at 8.0 p.m. That station is presenting a programme which may hold you enthralled for 25 minutes. It is simply called "Suspense." Also worth notice: 1YX, 9.0 p.m.: Concerto No. 1 in E Minor (Chopin). 2YA, 8.0 p.m.: Symphony in D Minor (César Franck). 3YL, 9.1 p.m,.: Sonata in B Flat Major, Op. 106 (Beethoven) WEDNESDAY "SONGS the Soldiers Sang" not only in this war, but in the last, and earlier, will be heard in a BBC programme which 2YA will broadcast at 8.30 p.m, on Wednesday, December 29. Soldiers and women auxiliaries of the British Army play and sing the songs that have earned a place in their history, from "The British Grenadiers" to "South of the Border," from "Rosie O’Grady" to "Roll Out the Barrel," with "Tipperary" and "Bless ‘em All" and many others thrown in besides, The cast are all men and women in uniform, and the linking narrator is Private O’Connor. Captain J. Hargreaves wrote the script, and the programme is produced by V. C. Clinton Baddeley.

Also worth notice: 1YA, 8.36 p.m.: "Moonlight" Sonata by Beethoven (studio). 3YA, 9.30 p.m.: Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven). 4YO, 8.0 p.m.: Concert by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

THURSDAY "FAIRY Tale Music’ from 3YL at 9.45 p.m. on Thursday, December 30, should suit all tastes, for there are as many different types of fairy tales in the world as there are beams from the moon. / And most of the fairy , ia

tales are linked in some way with music. There was Pan with his flute of seven reeds, there were the witches and warlocks, who danced before Tam 0’ Shanter to the bagpipes played by Old Nick, there were Sirens, who "charmed by their melodious voices all who heard them." Music has always had great power. We read that "David took an harp and played with his hand; so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him." But whether this programme of Fairy Music will have the same power over you we cannot guess, Also worth notice: 1YX, 8.0 p.m.: Suite No. 2 in B Minor (Bach) 2YA, 9.52 p.m.: Concerto in F (Gershwin). 4YA, 8.0 p.m.: Delius programme.

FRIDAY of the Soviet’s most popular composers is Isaac Dunayevsky, two songs by whom will be heard from 3YA at 7.30 p.m. on Friday, New Year’s Eve. He is 43 years old, writes comic operas that have been described as "high class vaudevilles," advocates local colour for "mass songs," and believes there should be music for railwaymen, spinners, and weavers, plumbers, etc., because workers display added interest in allusions to their own craft "even where the quality of the music is merely average." He is president of the Leningrad Union of Soviet Composers, and thanks to his energy there is available a profusion of assistance to young composers, including financial grants to enable approved work to be carried out, or instruments to be bought, and there is even an "Artists’ Rest Home" for tired or invalided composers. Also worth notice: 2YA (and other stations), 7.0 p.m.: New Year Message by His Excellency the Gov-ernor-General. 2YD, 9.45 p.m.: "Good-bye, 1943!" SATURDAY {tT is too bad for some of us that 1944 begins on a Saturday. Even in war time there are holidays that we like to remain holidays, and New Year’s Day is one of them. We don’t like merging it

in a holiday that 90 per cent. of us keep in any case, and this year we have to. But New Year’s Day is one event and New Year’s Eve another. Neither the calendar nor the solar system nor Tojo nor Hitler can compel us to remain sober on the last Friday night of 1943, and some certainly will not. But if we make too violent a job of New Year’s Eve we may miss some things on New Year’s Day that, if our heads were not so heavy, we should certainly wish to enjoy-the races, for example, from 1YA, the Goldmark Symphony from . 2YC, the music of Russia from 3YL and/or Tommy Dorsey’s Show from 4YA. It is true that we can’t have all these things even if we are sober, since the Goldmark and the Russians will be on the air at the same time, But it will be a pity if we make such a job of Friday night that we blot ourselves out from them all. They are all worth notice. SUNDAY HE series of programmes "America Talks to New Zealand" has brought to listeners of the National stations the voices of Americans from various walks of life-most of whom have never had the New Zealander’s ear before. But from Station 3YL at 9.30 a.m. on Sunday, January 2, the speaker will be one who has been talking to New Zealanders in his own way for years-Johnny Mercer, the man who wrote the words of many popular songs of film and radio: for instance, "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition," "Old Black Magic," "Salt Lake City Blues," "The Strip Polka," and "The Waiter and the Porter and the Upstairs Maid." It will be interesting to hear how the Great Masters of Tin Pan Alley go-about their business-perhaps Mr. Mercer will tell us which comes first, the lyric or the tune. Or perhaps he won't. Also worth notice: 1YA, 933 pm: "Red is the Morning" play). 4YA, 9.22 p.m.: Symphonie Fantastique (Berlioz).