THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 371, 2 August 1946, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

Natural Fires WHAT do you know about volcanoes? Do you know how they produce the effects they do produce in the country around them, and why? Aucklanders, who really should know something about them, will have the opportunity to make up any deficiencies in their knowledge by tuning in to Dr. Guy Harris’ next Science at Your Service talk from 1YA at 8.29 p.m. on Monday, August 5. But here is a little prep. for this lesson: There are roughly two kinds of volcanu in New Zealand, or "natural fires" as W D’Arcy Cresswell called them. The acidic ones give out a lava that forms pumice-it hardens quickly, and tends to come out either explosively or as ash. The basaltic ones have a lava that flows out gently, and forms, in time, rich fertile soil. Some, like Ruapehu, are not exactly one thing or the other. They take their character from the nature of the formation underneath, and if that is itself a mixture, then the lava discharge will be a mixture. The South Island Voleanic areas, such as Banks Peninsula and Otago Peninsula were mainly basaltic. So of course were the ones: round what we now call Auckland. With this elementary information (which might even be contradicted by Dr. Harris, since volcanoes are controversial things), we now leave am to find out the rest yourself. Can a Fraction Multiply? OME farmers believe that identical twins among their stock have no power to reproduce, because they are a kind of genetical split-pea. They may be entirely right, or they may be only partly right-we would hesitate to guess our. selves. But J. J. Hancock, who is going to give a talk on "Identical Twins" in the 1YA Farmers’ Session at 7.15 p.m. en Monday, August 5, probably has the facts lined up on both sides-or perhaps there are no two ways about it. At all events, farmers in the north who have any doubts would be well advised to tune in and hear what Mr. Hancock has to say. Grieg a l'Americaine ONG OF NORWAY, the recorded feature which 2YA will broadcast at 8.0 p.m. an Wednesday, August 7, is a series of excerpts from the Broadway smash-hit of that name. The soloists in it will be Kitty Carlisle, Lawrence Brookes, George Forrest, Ivy Scott, and Walter Kingsford. Song of Norway is an operet*‘a based on the life and music of Edvard Grieg, and the orchestral prelude has been made from his A Minor piano concerto. Here are some of the other pieces, in their original names: "T Love You," "Woodland Wanderings," Norwegian Dance No. 2. "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen," and "To Spring." The musical adaptation is by Robert Wrigh: and George Forrest. "The Gilded Cage" ERMIONE GINGOLD contributes what she calls a little intellectual interlude to the BBC’s radio night-club programme "The Gilded Cage," which 3YA will broadcast at 4.0 p.m. on Thursday, August 8. (If you wonder why 4.0 p.m., console yourself with the thought that it will then be 4.0 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time, which is about right for a

night club). Miss Gingold is to give a keyboard talk, and will tell you things about great composers which you've never heard before. Others in this programme are Jean Cavell, in French gongs, and Cliff Gordon with impressions of more of his victims. Sea-Lions and Seals OW would you identify a seal, a sealion, a sea-elephant, or a sea-leopard? Few people, we should say, could. answer the question accurately. We rarely see any of these animals, and most people’s knowledge of seals is confined to the fact that they provide prized fur for coats, and that in the early days of New Zealand they were a factor in exploration and colonisation. t, as recent discovery has shown, New Zealand still has a practical interest in seals, for the southern islands are homes of these animals. A number of New Zealanders went to the Aucklands and Campbells during the last few years, and one of them, J. H. Sorensen, will talk about seals, sea-elephants, sea-lions and sealeopards at 2YA on. Friday, August 9, at 7.15 p.m. History Without Tears HE young person in the picture we print on page 42 this week is quite likely to fit in with your idea of "Mary, Mary, quite contrary,’ but your nextdoor neighbour may have formed an entirely different image of this heroine of nursery rhyme. Every child (and therefore every grown-up) probably goes through life with his or her own fixed idea of the appearance of the imaginary people of nurseryland. Not all of them, though, are imaginary. In a programme on nursery rhymes in the BBC series Book of Verse (which 2YA will broed cast at 8.28 p.m. on Friday, August 9), Victoria Sackville-West reveals that many old favourites were actual -his-_ torical personages. King Cole ruled Britain in the Third Century, A.D.; Anthony Rowley of "A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go" was Charles II.; Lucy

Locket who lost her pocket was a notorious courtesan in the same monarch’s reign. In fact, the study of nursery rhymes leads you up all sorts of historical by-paths, as you'll find if you listen. Remember Pepusch F he had not been the orchestrator of folksongs for The Beggar’s Opera, we might have forgotten by now all about Dr. J. C. Pepusch, the German theorist, organist, conductor and composer, who spent the first half of the 18th Century (and the last fifty years of his life), in England. His own compositions are said to be rather dull and uninspired, but his memory will remaih with us as long as The Beggar’s Opera does, for which he wrote the overture and orchestrated 69 folksongs. Two Auckland singers, Phyllis and Lorna Littler, are going to sing one of Dr. Pepusch’s folksongs, "The Sweete Rosie Morning" (an old English hunting song) from 1YA at 8.5 p.m. on Saturday, August 10. Satirical Harlequin [;ERRUCCIO BUSONI, who is mostly known to listeners here by his arrangements for piano of some of J. S. Bach’s works, appears as a composer in his own right in the programme to be heard from 2YC at 8.0 p.m. on Saturday, August 10. The second work in a programme of music by Italian composers of the 19th Century will be Busoni’s "Rondo Arlecchinesco." He composed it in 1915, most of which year he spent in America: Between the years 1914-1916, he was also at work on an opera Arlecchino (Harlequin), which had a libretto by himself, and was a bitter’ satire on the war and human follies. The "Rondo Arlecchinesco" is a musical portrayal of Harlequin, and there is an off-stage tenor solo near the end in which Harlequin voices his contempt for mankind. The work is conducted by Toscanini.