BY OUR OWN COMPOSERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 546, 9 December 1949, Page 21

BY OUR OWN COMPOSERS

ORDES of composers are hardly to be expected in New Zealand, or anywhere else for that matter, but there are probably more of them in this country than most people imagine. On Monday, December 12, beginning at 8.0 p.m. 1YD will broadcast on relay from the Town Hall Concert Chamber the first half of a concert organised by the Guild of New Zealand Composers and devoted entirely to music written by New Zealanders. The programme will open with "There is a garden in her face," a part-song by John Tait, and "Son of God to Thee I Cry," an anthem by Ronald Dellow, both sung by the Beresford Street Congregational Church Choir conducted by Ronald Dellow. It will end with Douglas Lilburn’s Diversions played by the Auckland String Players conducted by Georg Tintner. Among the other items there

will be songs to music by H. C. Luscombe, Eric Bell, Calypso Brook, Richard Dixon and Georg Tintner, piano zompositions by Llewellyn Jones and Henry Shirley, a poem for alto saxophone and piano by Owen Jensen, and a fantasia for violin and piano by Ethel Gibsom we In most cases the composers will take part in the presentation of their own work, There is special interest in Ethel Gibson’s Fantasia, fog the composer is blind. She will play the violin part and will be supported by another blind musician, Julian Lee, at the piano. Beginning in 1947 as an assembly of Auckland friends with like interests the Guild, which owes its foundation largely to the enthusiasm of Henry Shirley and Dorothea Franchi,. became an incorporated society last year, and now has members scattered throughout New Zealand. The first president was Thomas N. Rive, lecturer in music at Auckland University College. Its principal objects, the secretary, Ronald Dellow, told The. Listener, include the fostering of a higher standard of composition among New Zealanders, the promotion of concerts of New Zealand work, and giving all possible encouragement: to the production of New Zealand work by other societies and artists. "We have a small membership, but no country is exactly over-run with composers," said Mr. Dellow. "Some of our most active members are now studying overseas, and we hope that as they return new works will become available in increasing numbers. Of course the frequency of concerts will largely depend on output-and that depends on inspiration, a factor which cannot be tied to any set programme of production. Then too the measure of public, and perhaps Government, support must have considerable effect. We hope however that music-loving New Zealanders will become increasingly aware of the achievements of the Guild."