THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 244, 25 February 1944, Page 2

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

MONDAY [t was Dryden and not Bunyan whe * called freedom "an Englishman’s sole prerogative." The words were Dryden’s, and the period was Dryden’s. But it was also John Bunyan’s, for Bunyan was born in 1628 (the year Charles I had to consent to the Petition of Right). Before he died (in 1688, a year of actual revolution) Bunyan had his own occasions to contemplate this prerogative at leisure. The author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, as every schoolboy knows, spent two spells of six years each in gaol and one of six months, during the last of which he dreamed his famous dream; and throughout his threescore years he did as his own Pilgrim did: he "put his fingers in his ears and ran on" straight for his mark. If the subjection to Godly discipline which Bunyan preached was a form of freedom-he would probably have said it was the only form-he is fitly included in the series Fighters for Freedom (2YA and National stations, 7.30 p.m. Monday, February 28). Also worth notice: 3YA, 9.42 p.m.: Quartet in D Major (Mozart). : 4YZ, 8.0 p.m.: Piano recital by Andersen Tyrer (studio), TUESDAY ARE you a misogynist or a feminist? Do you maintain that a woman’s place is in the home (that is not exactly a "new release") or agree that women should be allowed equal status with men in all walks of life? Whatever you are, the tables may be turned on you "if you don’t watch out." If we don’t win the war, it will be good-bye for a century or two to feminism. If we do win it, we may see women staying at work and refusing to come home and men in desperation cooking the evening meal as often as overtime is available. Perhaps that is what Madeline Alston is going to talk about in "Women and the Home." Tune in to 1YA at 10.45 am. on Tuesday, February 29. Also worth notice: 1YX, 9.1 p.m.: Triple Concerto (Beethoven). 2YA, 8.12 p.m.: "Symphonie Espagnole" (Lalo). 4YA, 7.30 p.m.: Programme by St. Kilda Band. WEDNESDAY "THE harp, at one time, was the only possession of a Welshman that could not be seized for debt. Whether or not it is the only chattel he still has to his name we do not know, but H. G. Glaysher is going to take his harp along to Station 3YA on Wednesday, March 1St. David’s Day of course-to contribute to a special programme of Welsh music which 3YA has assembled for the occasion. The Listener co-operates and imposes an exceptional strain upon its linotype-operators and proof-readers, to satisfy the longing of its Welsh readers to see their native tongue printed in programmes from which tongue-twisters in several other languages have long since been excluded, The programme will begin at 7.30 p.m., and while country listeners are following the stock market report, Mr. Glaysher will be somewhere in the background fondling his instrument, and

hoping the announcer will get his tongue safely round Hen Wlad fy Nhadau. Also worth notice: 1YA, 8.36 p.m.: Quintet for ‘Wind Instruments and Piano (Mozart). 2YA, 6.45 pm.: A.E.W.S. Discussion Group. 3YA, 9.30 p.m.: Symphony No. 7 in A Major (Beethoven). THURSDAY . HEN Beethoven wrote his Fifth Symphony, the Morse code was still floating in the ether, and Beethoven even in his most embittered moments could

never have dreamed that his stirring theme would become a musical catch-cry harnessed to a_ war effort more than a century later. But V for Victory to the accompaniment of Beethoven’s Fifth is now the accepted thing. The versatile V however goes further than this. The Surrealists, according to Clapham and Dwyer, claim V for la France, the fashion experts announce V necks to be once more in vogue, and at last the Health’ Department, not to be outdone, announces V for Vitamins in its talk in the Health in the Home series on Thursday, March 2 (4YA, 11.20 a.m.). Also worth notice: 1YA, 9.25 p.m.: Concert by Auckland Watersiders’ Silver Band. 2YC, 8.0 p.m.: Piano Quartet (Walton). 4YZ, 9.25 p.m.: Piano recital by Andersen Tyrer (studio). FRIDAY IN Friday, March 3, at 7.6 p.m., listeners to 4YA will hear Sir Neville Pearson talking on the subject, "What They Are Thinking in England." When Sir Neville was in New Zealand not many weeks ago-The Listener interviewed him-he came near telling a public gathering that the English did not think at all. They just waited. They thought when the bombs first fell; but that was ancient history now he said. Today eight Englishmen out of ten, and nine Englishwomen, know that the war is being won, that it will end, and that the great majority of them will live to see the day. So they neither worry unduly nor ask unnecessary questions. They work early and they work late, and the best indication he could give of their state of mind was the question of his charwoman when he came home after what he thought a tough time in the artillery: "’Ad a nice time, Sir?" Also worth notice: 1YA, 7.30 p.m.: Ten Variations in G Major (Mozart). 2YA, 7.30 p.m.: Margherita Zelanda, coloratura soprano (studio).

SATURDAY ILL meat-rationing mean _ shoerationing, some people are asking. We are tempted to say to these importunate people, "None of your hide." As long as we aren’t driven to the extreme of buying up extra shoes to gnaw in our meatless moments, our feet will remain decently shod. Anyway, what’s wrong with clogs? Our streets would be more cheerful places if they echoed to the clatter of wooden shoes instead of to the hollow shuffle of leather. People interested in this vital question should listen in to 3YA at 8.0 p.m. on Saturday, March 4, when Harry Horlick and his orchestra will play "Wooden Shoes." Also worth notice: 2YA, 7.30 p.m.; Margherita Zelanda, coloratura soprano (studio). 3YL, 8.0 p.m.: Programme of Modern British Composers. 4YA, 8.0 p.m.: A programme by the 4YA Concert Orchesrta. SUNDAY F Jewish names were obliterated from the lists of the best performing musicians of the last hundred years, nearly all the names which are by common consent the greatest would have been removed. The same could not be said of the lists of best composers. But if Jewish composers have not overshadowed their Aryan contemporaries as Jewish performers have done, there have nevertheless been a few whose minority is that of number only. Ernest Bloch is perhaps the first among them, and Station 4YA will broadcast two of this composer’s religious works on Sunday evening, March 5: "Solomon" (a Hebrew Rhapsody) and "Abodah" (Worship of God). Between these two items, Madeleine Grey will sing Maurice Ravel's "Three Hebrew Songs." Also worth notice: 2YA, 2.0 p.m: ‘Jupiter’ Symphony (Mozart). 2YA, 9.42 p.m.: Margherita Zelanda, coloratura soprano (studio). SYA, 8.15 p.m.: "Turandot" (opera by Puccini).