THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 277, 13 October 1944, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

-- MONDAY ‘THE Madrigal Club, which is to give a programme from 4YA Studio at 8.6 p.m. on Monday, October 16, is a subchoir of the Dunedin Choral Society, which has been working separately on smaller musical works for nearly 10 years, It was first formed when Alfred Walmsley was conductor to the society, and its purpose was to sing madrigals and glees and short choral compositions, its members holding practices in one, another’s homes. It has given public recitals in Dunedin, and has been on the air before, though not for some time. Also worth notice: 2YA, 7.47 p.m.: "Pickwick Papers" (readings). 3YA, 9.25 p.m.: Trio No. 9 in A (Haydn). TUESDAY "Music FOR THE THEATRE," by the American composer Aaron Copland, will be presented by 2YA for the first time at 9.40 p.m. on Tuesday, October 17, played by the EastmanRochester -Symphony Orchestra. The suite was written in 1925, and parts of it may remind the listener of William Walton’s suite "Facade." The composer says that he "had no play or literary idea in mind," and that "the title merely implies that at times the music has a

| Quality which is suggestive of the theatre." It is in five parts, Prologue, Dance (a short, nervously rhythmical movement), Interlude (a kind of "song without words"), Burlesque, and Epilogue. Also worth notice: 1YX, 8.8 p.m.: Symphony No. 99 in E Flat (Haydn), 2YA, 8.0 p.m.: Primary Schools Musiz Festival (see page 18). WEDNESDAY AVE you read The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire? If you haven’t, you need not feel lonely. At least 99 per cent of your fellow-countrymen — probably 9914 per cent-have not read it either. Whether you should feel ashamed or not we should not like to have to decide. But you have missed the greatest history ever written in the English language-and one of the greatest ever written in any language. You have not had your ears soothed by its eloquence, your mind sharpened by its wit, your imagination fired by the range and glow of its scholarship. So try yourself out with a passage or two read from 3YA at 8.5 p.m. on Wednesday, October 18.

Also worth notice: 1YA, 8.16 p.m.: "Hammerklavier"’ Sonata (Beethoven). 3YA, 9.30 p.m.: "Belshazzar’s Feast" (Walton). THURSDAY You may be interested to know that the Blattidae are a family of orthopterous insects, with flattened bodies, long thread-like antennae, and shining leathery integument. It may further interest you to know that the domestic type will eat almost anything but are specially addicted to starchy or sweetened matter of various kinds, that they also attack provisions, Paper, clothing, books, shoes, bones, etc., that they injure and soil far more than they consume, and that they emit a disagreeable odour. Have you anything like that

in your house? Be truthful, for 3YA is broadcasting a talk on Thursday, October 19, at 7.15 p.m., which may help you. But if you are sensitive about the little dumb friends that are crawling up your wallpaper and snuggling down in your fur coat, turn your wireless low so that the neighbours won’t hear what you are listening to. For Blattidae is the family name for the cockroach. Also worth notice: 2YC, 8.30 p.m.: Octet in E Flat Major, Op. 20 (Mendelssohn). 4YA, 7.30 p.m.: Overture on Greek Themes, No. 1, Op. 3 (Glazounov). FRIDAY ~ BBC production which 4YA will present at 8.36 p.m. on Friday, October 20, is entitled "To Tim at Twenty." It may remind some listeners of a letter by a Czech soldier, which was read over the air by Leonard Brockington, and afterwards printed in The Listener. "To Tim at Twenty" is a letter written by a British airman to his infant son, with the intention that it should be read when he is 20, expressing some of the fears and hopes of a father who may not see his son grow up. Also worth notice: 1YA, 8.25 p.m.: Symphony No. 5 (Mendelssohn). 4YA, 9.33 p.m.: Readings from Charles Lamb. ;

SATURDAY ETWEEN 9.0 p.m. and 10.0 p.m. on Saturday, October 21, Station 3YL will present one hour of music from our neighbours across the Tasman. Orchestral works and songs by six Australian composers will be heard: "Idyll" for two pianos and orchestra by Lindley Evans . (of Sydney) will open the programme; then there will be a BBC recording of "Wallaby Track" by John Gough (now living in England); "Six Australian Bush Songs" by William James (of the Australian Broadcasting Commission) will be sung by Peter Dawson; then another BBC recording of the first movement of a symphony by Hubert Clifford (until recently attached to the BBC); and a song, "Bush Fire," by Iris Mason (once of Wellington). Also worth notice: 1YX, 9.0 p.m.: Symphony No. 5. (Sibelius). 2YC, 9.0 p.m.: NBC Symphony Orchestra (Stokowski ). ‘ SUNDAY G B. SHAW’S play on Napoleon, "The "Man of Destiny," which was last broadcast by the NBS in 1939, will be heard from 2YA at 9.50 p.m. on Sunday, October 22. The author himself describes it as "a trifle." Those who know Shaw’s plays learn to expect that his characters will not be what they might have expected, so, lest you be taken too violently by surprise, here are some lines from Shaw’s prefatory description of the Little Corporal: "He is imaginative without illusions, and creative without religion, loyalty, patriotism, or any of the common ideals. Not that he is incapable of these ideals; on the contrary . . . he is extremely clever at playing upon them by the arts of the actor and stage manager." Also worth notice: 1YA, 9.33 p.m.: Music by Meyerbeer. 3YA, 3.0 p.m.: Eastman-Rochester Symys