The Beaten Track

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 301, 29 March 1945, Page 8

The Beaten Track

N one of those occasional blank periods when there seemed to be nothing worth hearing on any of my stations I fell back on that consoling pastime, reading the programme pages of The _Listener to see what I had been missing that week, and somehow I fell to looking at the faces of studio performers in the picture pages, and wondering what they were doings We will see what these ones are singing, said I, picking at random three adjacent women’s faces. Miss X, for instance, had chosen for her opening number that Ever-popular Ballad "Homing," by the most Ladylike of Lady Composers, Teresa del Riego, to be followed by another from the same pen. That was on the Thursday. Two nights later Miss Y and Miss Z were on. Miss Y would open her recital with (I must be brief) that E.P. ballad "Homing," by (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) the most L-L of LC’s, T. del R, She would also sing "Here in the Quiet Hills," by Carne, and "Fairy Tales of Ireland," by Coates. Now what would Miss Z sing? Something different, to be sure. But no. Miss Z would sing "Fairy Tales of Ireland," by Coates, and "Here in the Quiet Hills," by Carne. There must be something about these songs, I feel certain, Perhaps some sentiment in them strikes home with the amateur singer, like the wistful "Oh Could But I Express in Song," chosen with reckless candour by two other studio singers in the same week’s programmes. Or is it import restrictions? Or examination set pieces?