THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 283, 24 November 1944, Page 6

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

MONDAY F you have never heard of the Professor Stapledon whose name appears in 1YA’s programme at 7.15 p.m. on Monday, November 28, then you are not likely to be a pastoralist. Conversely, if you do happen to be a pastoralist it is reasonably certain that you know of Professor Stapledon, and remember his visit to New Zealand. He is that very eminent authority on grasslands, the author of "A Tour of Australia and New Zealand: Grassland and other Studies" (1928), "The Land Now and To-mor-row" (1935), and various scientific papers. He will be heard from 1YA in a talk on Grasslands, recorded in England by the BBC. Also worth notice: 2YA, 8.0 p.m.: Quartet in E, Op. 125 (Schubert). 4YA, 8:0 p.m.: Royal Dunedin Male Choir. TUESDAY ALK to us about The Game of Halma, and we will think of antimacassars, stuffed birds, and _ stereoscopes. Mention The Game of Yoyo, and we will remember the Loch Ness Monster, Larwood’s bodyline, and other oddities of the Years between Two Wars. These are mental images of the past evoked by forgotten games. But when we saw in 4YA’s programme ‘for Tuesday, November 29, "The Game of Families," we had no nostalgic stirrings. But we were bewildered. This, we thought, must be some futuristic fantasy, ‘some wild imagining about the longed-for age of adequate housing, mother’s helpers, family allowances, the day when families will be, of all things, a Game. We haven’t found out whether we were right, but you will if you tune in to the item from 4YA at 8 p.m. It is another instalment of "Barbara at Home." Also worth notice: 1YX, 8.12 p.m.: "Linz’ Symphony (Mozart). 2YA, 8.0 p.m.: "New World’ Symphony (Dvorak).

WEDNESDAY EADERS of The Listener write to us now and again from Patagonia, Tristan da Cunha, Kamschatka, and other remote and altogether absurd places, to ask why it is that Station 2YC so frequently broadcasts the Seventh Symphony of Sibelius. Is this symphony so popular here, they ask, that it has to be broadcast once a month (on August 9, September 6 and October 4)? These persons do not understand the ways of Station 2YC. They ought to realise that when Sibelius’s Seventh Symphony is again scheduled to be heard from 2YC (at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, November 30) this persistent masterpiece is making one more desperate bid to be really and truly heard-Parliament permitting. Kamschatkans, Tristan da Cunhans, and Patagonians may have difficulty in hearing the symphony, but Wellingtonians should’ -have none, unless of course 2YC’s programme is washed out once more by a special sitting of The House. Also worth notice: 3YA, 9.30 p.m.: Symphony No. 5 (Shostakovich). 4YO, 9.0 p.m.: Symphony No, 1 (Brahms),

THURSDAY ITTLE fleas, says the old rhyme, have lesser fleas upon their backs to bite ’em. But it is not true. We wish it were, and that the lesser might sometimes prevail. Yet the thought is a pleasant one, and the possibilities not limited to fleas; One thinks with comfort, for instance, of the same principle in action in commerce. But what about "Bill Barnacle’s Maggot," a piece of music by the Australian composer Humbert Clifford, to be found in 1YA’s programme for Thursday, November 30? Some of us may. never know whether this is another tale of dog bites dog, or maggot bites barnacle, barnacle bites ship, and so on; for there are evidently no words. It is a piece of band music, to be played by the Fairey Aviation Works band about 9.44 p.m. But the curious will surely listen: Also worth notice: 1YX, 8.0 p.m.: Trio in D Minor (Arensky). 4YA, 8.25 pm.: "Haffner" Symphony (Mozart). FRIDAY ’ UMMER, as Englishmen were singing in the 13th century, is icumen in. "Loud sing cuckoo! Well sing thou cuckoo, nor cease thee never now." The mood of the old English canon may be the mood of the readings that Professor T. D. Adams will give from 4YA at 9.29 p.m. on Friday, December 1, even if its music is not heard. We do not know exactly what excerpts relating to "Summer in Prose and Verse" Professor Adams has chosen, but there are 60-odd entries under "Summer" in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, and even if he were not a Professor he should have little difficulty in making

an attractive selection from the literature of our favourite season. Also worth notice: 1YA, 8.32 p.m.: Viola Concerto (Walton). 3YA, 8.0 p.m.: Christchurch Orpheus Choir. SATURDAY T was just the other day that a recent copy of the Musical Times came our way, and we happened to notice a little note at the foot of a column to the effect that a Miss Hurlstone was compiling a biography of William Hurlstone, and ‘would be pleased to receive letters, anecdotes, or reminiscences from persons who knew him. Though it is our job to pretend that we know all about music and musicians, we confess that this little footnote drove us to our reference books, where we found that William Yeates Hurlstone, 1876-1906, was a promising English composer who might have been something much more had he lived longer. And then, as these things will do, the name cropped up again, in our copies of 1YA’s programmes. A set of his Miniature Ballads will be heard’ from 1YA at 8.38 p.m. on Saturday, December 2, sung in the studio by Rachael Fairlie. Also worth notice: 1YX, 9.0 p.m.: "Belshazzar’s Feast" (Walton). 3YL, 9.0 p.m.: Symphony No. 1 in F (Shostakovich ). SUNDAY FiIrTy years ago, on December 3; 1894, Robert Louis Stevenson died at Vailima, Samoa. At 3 p.m. on Sunday, December 3, 1944, will commemorate Stevenson with a talk prepared by C. R. Allen, the Dunedin poet. The talk will be a reconsideration of Stevenson as man and writer, and we shall be listening in ourselves, for if it has become fashionable with some to cry him down, R.L.S. is still one of our favourite authors. There will be music too — for instance, some of Vaughan Williams’ delightful settings of Stevenson poems. Also worth notice: 2YA, 2.0 p.m.: Mozart’s "Paris" Symphony. 3YA, 9.22 p.m.: Music from Rossini Operas.