THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 438, 14 November 1947, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The’ Programmes

First Performance NEXT week’s first performance from * " 3YA will be a studio presentation by Ernest Jenner of Bernard Steyens’s "Theme and Variations," in the course of a lecture recital at 9.30 p.m. on Monday, November 17. Bernard Stevens, who is now 34, is on the staff of the | Royal College of Music, London, where formerly he was a student of composition and conducting. He served in the British Army from 1940 to 1946, and in 1945 his Symphony of Liberation was the winning work in the competition organised by the London Daily Express for a symphony commemorating the victory. This work was performed in the Albert Hall last year. The "Theme and Variations" for pianoforte is an earlier work, having been first ‘published in 1942. Cause and Effect ‘] HE first of two talks which he calls A Scientist Opens-His Mail will. be given from 2YA on Monday, November 17, et 7:15 p.m. by J. D.. McDonald, Principal of the Westport Technical High School. Basing his comments on | questions in letters he has received from various people, he will explain how geysers and volcanoes erupt, what makes glow-worms glow, how limestone caves are formed and how bats emit sounds above the limits of human hearing and operate their own system of radar. And he will tell how, by simple experiments at home, one can duplicate some of the natural phenomena. For instance, a geyser can be simulated by taking a long glass tube, sealing it at one end, filling it with water and heating the bottom. Some people, he says, believe that a man can learn all he needs to know by careful personal observation; others find it easier tb let someone else do the observing for them. At any rate, his talks should interest both types. Music of the Maori T the hui which was held at Ruatoria in September to celebrate the opening of a memorial hall to men who lost their lives while serving in the Maori Battalion, the only pakeha to sing a solo in Maori was Phyilis Williams, who is known to the Maoris there ‘as Kirimamae. This honour was paid to her for her many years of work amongst them, during which time she has learnt many of their traditional songs and _ hakas. Some of these are now being broadcast for the first time by Mrs. Williams in a series of programmes from the main National stations. In her work of collecting and learning these songs she had the help of Sir Apirana Ngata and the late Mataroa Ngarimu, who spent many painstaking hours in teaching her the characteristic rhythms and intonations of the Maori. Listeners in the South Island have already heard several recitals, and next week Mrs. Williams will sing from 2YA at 9.30 p.m. on Monday and Thursday (November 17 and 20), and at 7.50 p.m. on Friday, November 21. There will be further recitals from 1YA during the ‘following week. Besides traditional airs (moteatea), each programme will contain some modern Maori songs and at least one haka.

"Achieved Real Sublimity" [N the last year of his short life, Mozart composed two operas, La Clementa di Tito, written in the old formal Italian .tradition, and his greatest work for the stage, The Magic Flute, whicl became the foundation of all subsequent German opera. It was originally iptended that The Magic Flute should be no more than a spectacular fairy-story comedy with songs, but instead it became an aJtegory of Freemasonry-some-

thing of a morality play of the deepest ethical significance. Freemasonry at this time had spread from Eng!and to Germany and had gained rapid ground, especially among intellectuals. Mozart was initiated in 1785, and the opera was written for a popular Vierinese theatre, managed by another devoted Frcemason, Emanuel Schikaneder, who was not only (with Karl Ludwig Giesecke) responsible for the libretto, but was intended for the part of Papageno. The Magic Flute is considered by Professor Edward J. Dent to be "perhaps the one work of Mozart in which he achieved real sublimity." The first part of the opera will be heard from 1YA between 8.15 p.m..and 8.45, and 9.33 and 10.33 on Sunday, November 23, and the second half the following Sunday evening. Music From a Miracle Play N outstanding creation of the contemporary ballet is Miracle in the Gorbals (produced by Sadler’s Wells in 1944), the musical score of which was written by Arthur Bliss. The theme of the ballet is the return of the Saviour to the modern scene, and the setting is the slums of Glasgow on a Saturday night. Briefly, the story tells of a young girl who commits suicide and is brought back to life by a mysterious Stranger, who is opposed in the play by a parson who eventually brings about his death, It reveals how even the tough dwellers of a dockland slum can be moved by the primitive fears of their mountain ancestors when confronted with, death, and provides an opportunity of probing the true emotional depths of these people in their national Scottish dances. Bliss’s music, the choreography of Robert Helpmann, end the scenery of the painter Burra, have all combined to produce a modern miracle play which is something new to ballet. The music from Miracle in the Gorbals will be heard from 3YL at 9.30 p.m. on Sunday, November 23.

Strauss the Old Master ICHARD STRAUSS, now 83 years of age, came out of obscurity in Switzerland recently to attend a Strauss revival in. London, -with Sir Thomas Beecham presenting a festival of the old master’s works. When Strauss entered the royal box at Drury Lane Theatre the audience rose to its feet and applauded thunderously. Strauss bowed to the orchestra, then to the audience, and listened to his music as played by Beecham. One of a group of Strauss’s early compositions that mark his development as a purely orchestral composer, Thus Spake Zarathustra, will be | heard in the first of a new series in 3YA’s classical hour, The Tone Poems of Richard Strauss, on Thursday next, November 20, at 3.0 p.m. Blending of Cultures N 1939 one of the lecturers at the Auckland Teachers’ College, Miss O L. G. Adams, organised a Maori Clukt . with the purpose of spreading the culture and knowledge of the Maori race among interested European students. The club started with a small group of Maori students as members, but as more Maoris entered the teaching profession and as interest grew in the club’s everwidening activities, it became so popular that to-day membership has had to be restricted. Maori arts and crafts are studied and discussions held with a view to the selection and incorporation of different elements of Maori culture i modern life and the adaptation of art forms in modern teaching. The work,’ of the club, too, has done much to promote good fellowship and understanding between the two largest New Zealand racial groups. Naturally music looms large in the club’s interest and mem-» bers have been many times called upon to take part in Auckland concerts. The club choir (see photograph on page 24) will make its first broadcast from 1YA at 7.58 p.m. on Thursday, -November 20, when it will present songs, chants and hakas.