THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 481, 10 September 1948, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

Electric Music "T HOSE interested in the influence of modern electrical devices on the production of music should enjoy a recorded talk to be broadcast from 2YA next Monday, September 1° The speaker is Dr. H. Lowery, Member of the Board of Trinity College, London, and his subject is some of the recent developments in electric-or more strictly, elec-tronic-organs. He starts with simple pipe organs with an electric key action, and describes the development of "‘allelectric" organs like the American Hammond, which dispense with pipes in favour of radio valves for tone generation or amplification. In more recent years organs have been made which involve the use of photo-electric cells, and particular attention has been paid to these in the talk. The broadcast is timed for 7.15 p.m., and the title is What is an Organ? The Problem of Race VER since Hitler used his fantastic ideas about Aryanism to try and persuade the Germans that they were a people, the world has been a bit chary of talk about racial superiority. But the problem of race is still_a most important one, especially for people living as near Asia as we are. In the second talk of the BBC series The Anthropologist on Contemporary Problems, Professor J. H. Fleure gets to grips with this problem. He discusses among other things the possibility of defining any idea of race, and the effects on the modern political scene of false theories. Professor Fleure is a former secretary of the Geographical Association and editor of the journal Geography. His talk will be heard from 2YZ at 10.0 p.m. on Monday, September 13. "No Boughs Have Withered . ." \/HEN Peter Warlock died in 1930 England lost a song composer of considerable merit. Some of his songs are in the Elizabethan manner, while others show the influence of his friends Delius and van Dieren. The song cycle The Curlew is his most lengthy work, and the music is written to poems by W. B. Yeats. It is a series of four songs for tenor voice, flute, cor anglais, and string quartet, and succeeds in matching with music of great beauty the desolation and Celtic poignancy of Yeats’s words: "No boughs have withered because of the wintry .inds: the boughs have withered because T have told them my dreams." A recording of The Curlew, with John Armstrong (baritone) singing the vocal part, will be heard in | 4YA’s classical hour at 3.30 p.m. on Monday, September 13. ; The Old Vic Presents i NOT since Sybil Thorndyke was here to give her memorable performance et Bernard Shaw’s St. Joan has there een a company so eagerly 4nticipated by New. Zealand theatre-goers as the Old Vic, That there would be this keen interest was expected by the NZBS, which made arrangements through the ‘British Council for notable critics to record in England talks about the plays the Old Vic is presenting here, so that just prior to local performances these

programmes might be broadcast. The first of the series is The School for Scandal, in which McQueen Pope tells of incidents in the life of Sheridan providing the young dramatist with material for his play, and of how the company learned their parts page by page as a runner brought them hot from Sheridan’s pen.’ In the second talk, Ivor Brown. speaks of Richard III., compares it with other Shakespearean plays and comments upon the scope it provides for acting ability. In the final programme the Scots accent of Alan Dent is heard describing -Thornton Wilder’s panorama of mankind, The Skin of Our Teeth. Since the Old Vic season opens at Auckland, 1YA is the first station to present these talks. The School for Scandal was heard on September 6, Richard IJ/. will be broadcast at 7.0 p.m. this Thursday, September 9, and The Skin of Our Teeth at the same time on Monday, September 13. As the Old Vic Company moves south, stations in other centres in which the company plays will broadcast the talks. Without Bebop POPULAR BBC feature now being heard from 3YA is the series of programmes of improvised music being played by the Jazz Octet, a combination

which has been built up from ace play@s in a number of leading London dance bands. Six programmes by the group have been recorded, and listeners to 3YA can hear them at 9.45 p.m. on Thursdays. The members of the Octet are Reg Arnold (cornet), Sid Phillips (clarinet), Freddie Ballerini (tenorsax), and George Chisholm (trombone). In the rhythm section are Frank Deniz (guitar), Sid Heiger (drums), Will Hemmings (bass), and Dick Katz (piano). Although we can’t promise that bebop fans will get what they want out of these sessions, nearly every other lover of good jazz music should find . that Jazz Octet has got what he wants. Woodpile Mystery NOTHER play about a dream and its unusual consequences will be broadcast this week. This time it’s a BBC production, and a mystery thriller to boot. Its title is The Pile of Wood, and it will be heard from 4YA at 2.1 p.m. on Friday, September 17. Briefiy, the play is about two youths who are in love with the same girl. One of them dies mysteriously in what appears to be an accident involving a pile of wood. The father of the boy who 4s still alive has a strange’ dream in which ‘he sees his son kill the other boy. He aécuses the boy of the crime, but what happens as a result is the hidden sting whichelies in the tail of all good mystery stories. And this-is a good gne, produced with

De ee Se ge elt ile ge le oe pe ee ee ~~ — all the sound effects and powerful acting which characterise most BBC plays. Take Your Partners "OLD-TIME dancing,’ where a strict Master of Ceremonies regards exponents of the modern idiom as vandals who have strayed into the wrong department, is popular in New Zealand, and has been so for year® All the main centres have dance halls where patrons specialise in sedate and precise performances of the polka, the valeta, the maxina and the waltz. Here cabaret and night-club behaviour is eschewed and anyone who transgresses the unwritten but firmly understood rule risks a gentle tap on the shoulder and the caution, "Not here, please." The dancers are of all- ages, and devout, for they dance simply for the love of it. Listeners to 3YA at 9.30 p.m. on Saturday, September 18, will hear half-an-hour of oldtime dance music by Colin Campbell and his Orchestra from the Wentworth, which, as most inhabitants of Christchurch know, was once a -skating-rink, then a parcels post-office, and now, they claim, one of the largest dance-halls in New Zealand. Mr. Winter and Spring ‘[HESE warm spring days when the sap is rising in the bough «nd the ‘jaded office worker wishes he was a farmer or some other toiler in the great outdoors, it’s hard not to be able to take a day off even for a round of golf at the local links. And if we do try to escape for a few hours, retribution is bound to segin, which is exactly what happens to Mr. Winter, the hero of an NZBS play to be broadcast from 2YC at- 8.0 p.m. on Sunday, September 19. Mr. Winter is a London business man who gets so fed up with office routine that he decides to go out for the whole day and enjoy himself. While crossing London Bridge he meets a pretty girl with the same idea as himself, and they spend the day happily together. But that night at home Mr. Winter’s conscience begins to trouble him, and he has a strange dream about the consequences of his action. The following day at the office more startling events occur, but everything ends happily for everyone in this pleasantly. romantic story. The play is The Distraction of Mr. Winter, by Anthony Gravenor.