THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 448, 23 January 1948, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

N the summer of 1925 a certain Colonel Fawcett, searching for a lost civilization in the jungles of Central Brazil, disappeared with his entire expedition. The disappearance became a world sensation. What happened to him? millions of people asked, and they have been repeating that question ever since. Newspaper reports of his fate have appeared at intervals since 1927, and one of the latest (in 1946) stated that he /was alive and had become chief of a jungle tfibe. There is one man, however, who has probably come nearer to the truth than most people. He is Commander G. M. Dyott, who in 1927 led an expedition into the jungle to find out what had happened to Fawcett, and who came across certain pieces of concrete evidence in his search. The BBC have made a programme based on Dyott’s own story called The Mystery of Colonel Fawcett, and it will be heard from 4YA at 9.30 p.m. on Monday, January (26, Jazz Transcended (CONSTANT LAMBERT?’S first major success as a composer was his production of Rio Grande, a setting of a poem by Sacheverell Sitwell for alto solo, chorus, piano solo and orchestra, at a Halle Orchestra concert in 1929. The work is based on jazz idiom-a study in jazz rhythms in fact, with all the energy and nostalgia of Negro folk-music-yet it proved completely’ successful as a work of art. In a recent criticism Hubert Foss said, "The forces asked for (two cornets as well as two trumpets and five percussion players, for example) would appear to make it an exclusive work, suitable only for special occasions. In fact the opposite happened. It won popular success, and I believe that the success was due less to its introduction of a jazz idiom (though that of course helped) than to its intensity of feeling, which transcends the common slang of its idiom. It is a haunting piece." A recording of Rio Grande will be heard from 2YH at 3.30 p.m. on Thursday, January 29, For Yachtsmen HILE cricket, bowls and racing may at this time of the year be absorbing the interest of many New Zealanders, many others during this month and next will be keenly awaiting news from the waterfronts of Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin, where sevral national and two international yachting contests are being fought out. As the Cornwell Cup and monotype championships come to a conclusion at Paramata, yachtsmen’s eyes switch to Auckland for the Frostbite contests on January 26, 27 and 28. Starting at 10.40 am, 1YA will, on each day of the competitioh, broadcast periodical commentaries. Then, starting at the same time on Saturday, January 31, 1YA will be giving news of the 18footer world championships, which are also being contested at Auckland. Another event this month of more than national interest is the Auckland to Sydney race. This is due to start this Saturday, January 24. and will last approximately a fortnight, but while this contest will be the subject of broadcasts; it is not possible to finalise arrangements until close on the starting date so that advance announcement of them cannot or Dead?

be given. On Friday, January 30, there will be a diversion of interest from Auckland to Dunedin, where the IdleAlong championships will be concluded, 4YA giving commentaries throughout the day from 9.31 a.m. Early in February other national championships will be contested in Dunedin and in Auckland. The Proms ‘THE idea of the "promenade" in the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts, held annually in the Albert Hall, is that (if you were living in London and wanted a musical night out) you would go into the Hall for two shillings, take your place on the floor, and. thentheoretically, at any rate-promenade. What you would probably do in actual fact would be to stand where you were

for the rest of the evening, unless you were lucky enough (or early enough) to get one of the few seats ringed round the fountain in the centre of the arena, or at the sides. The Proms were started in 1895 at Queen’s Hall with Sir Henry Wood as conductor, and have continued annually ever since, transferring to the Albert Hall after the bombing of Queen’s Hall in 1941. The death of Sir Henry in 1944 was a sad blow to Prom fans, but just before he died he "bequeathed" the Proms to the BBC, who have carried them on in the same spirit with Sir Adrian Boult, Basil Cameron, and Constant Lambert as conductors. Recordings of some of the Proms 52nd series of concerts are at present being heard from 1YA. The second will be broadcast at 10.1 p.m. on Wednesday, January 28. Bach Sonatas HE first of a studio series of three *" Bach sonatas-No. 1 in B Minorplayed by Erika Schorss (violin) and Dorothy Davies (piano), will be heard from 2YA at 8.22 p.m. on Sunday, February 1. Bach wrote six sonatas for violin unaccompanied, and six for keyboard and violin. These may be said to close the contrapuntal period of music, Bach’s son Emanuel being the originator of the sonata in its modern form. Originally two kinds of sonata developed, the church and the chamber sonata. The latter was really a suite of dance tunes, the former, dignified and abstract, was the true precursor of the classical sonata of Haydn and Mozart. The older canzona, consisting of two contrasted sections repeated in alternation several times, with a coda, developed in Italy into the trio-sonata, and finally the form settled into the fourmovement sonata as established by Corelli. Of the People SERIES of five musical programmes of singular charm and freshness is the BBC’s Music of the People, which

contains some of the most popular and characteristic melodies of countries in every part of the world. Much of the work for this series was done by Gilbert Vinter (whose photograph appears on page 21), conductor of the International Light Orchestra, which plays the music, He spent many weeks of research, working sometimes with recordings of folk music performed by natives of the countries chosen, sometimes getting members of the BBC’s overseas departments to sing for him foreign traditional airs that had never been recorded. He then had to arrange and harmonise this material to suit his orchestra, aiming, he said, at keeping the native "feel" without attempting to "dress" the airs, or copy exactly the style of the various countries. The first part of Music of the People will be heard from 4YA at 8.28 p.m. on Saturday, January 31, On the Light Side RED HARTLEY is one of the most versatile figures in the light music world. He makes all the arrangements for his band, in which he is both pianist and conductor, and writes his own broadcasting scripts. For a long time he ran a music-publishing firm and he has even had an interest in a hand-laundry business. Like many other successful musicians he started young. He went to the Royal Academy 6f Music in London when he was 16 and before long became official accompanist to the Academy. After playing in various dance bands he was appointed conductor at the largest music hall in Stockholm, and followed that by taking on the job of accompanist at the BBC’s Dundee studio. Then, in 1942, he was appointed Light Music Supervisor to the BBC, resigning two years later to work and broadcast for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Recently he returned to England to stay for some month and made a series of programmes under the title of Fred Hartley and his Music. The first of these will be heard from 4YA on Friday, January 30, at 2.1 p.m.