"The Desolate Star"
ISTENERS to 4YA lately had the pleasure of hearing an extended work by a young New Zealand composer, Dorothea Franchi, of Auckland. This was her song-cycle, The Desolate Star, ene of the two works which shared the Philip Neill Memorial Prize for 1947. Sung by Douglas Stock (baritone), with the composer at the piano, it was a notable feature of the presentation that every word was audible. I was particularly grateful for this, as a new songcycle loses half its appeal if the words are not madeas clear as the music; in this case the text was a group of poems by Robin Hyde. Miss Franchi has succeeded in producing a true song: cycle, and not merely a series of songs strung together. The words express moods of sombreness and moments of exaltation, and although the composer has given us the climaxes with fire and abandon, she has kept the general emotional mood of the words by»the use of an underlying similarity of idiom in all five songs.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19480813.2.37.6
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 477, 13 August 1948, Page 20
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171"The Desolate Star" New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 477, 13 August 1948, Page 20
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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