CHRISTMAS IN THE AIR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 547, 16 December 1949, Page 6

CHRISTMAS IN THE AIR

National Station Programmes

N these days when multiple organisations with abbreviated titles are busying themselves with international affairs, the simple spontaneous goodwill of Christmas time holds us with a renewed appeal. For a while at least people have the excuse of custom and tradition to lay aside formality of manner, habit and speech, to smile at --and even speak to-those whom normally they ignore. But there are people who must work at Christmas time and among them are those behirid the radio microphones, It is for them an occasion for special effort. In keeping with the Festival they must, of course, observe the tradition of song and story, without which Christmas would not be Christmas. But there will be new things too for listeners in the programmes for Christmas 1949, as well as new variations on the old familiar themes. One is the first broadcast by the NZBS of a BBC play, The Christmas Child, by D. G. Bridson. This is a variation of a familiar theme but with a setting that could be in any manufacturing town in the north of England, and the two main characters any one of the young couples who have made a home in the rows of drab little houses that lie under the shadow of the factories. The story is told by a cast headed by Marjorie Westbury and Wilfred Pickles, and the music is sung by the Dorian Singers, conducted by Matyas Sieber. The play will be heard from 2YA on December 23 at 8.11 p.m., and from 1YA at 9.33 p.m., and 4YC at 8.0 p.m. on Christmas Day. New Cantata Another new item will be Christmas Cantata by Geoffrey Bush, which will be performed for the first time in New Zealand by the Coventry Singers in the studio of 4YA at 9.30 p.m. on Christmas Day. The conductor will be George Wilkinson. Geoffrey Bush is a 29 year-old British composer who was a cchorister at Salisbury Cathedral under Sir Walter Alcock: He entered Balliol College, Oxford, in 1938, with

a Nettleship Scholarship. In 1940 he gained the degree of Mus. B., and five years later returned to Oxford to become Mus. Doc. Christmas Cantata is said to combine traditional carol melodiés with modern harmonization and original choral writing; it was composed expressly for the Balliol Musical Society who first performed it at Christmas 1947. For Those Who Wotk Christmas Workers (dedicated to those who have to work to keep essential services going while others are enjoying themselves) is the selfexplanatory title of a feature to be presented from 2YA at 3.0 p.m. on

Christmas Day. It was compiled by Jack Dobson, formerly with Wilfred Pickles’s BBC show Have a Go, who spent his first few weeks in Wellington meeting some of these people. His quest took him into the engineroom of a large cargo vessel, to the Dominion Weather Office, and to a hostel where he met immigrants who will this year be spending their first Christmas in this country. In Christmas Workers listeners will also

hear an interview with Hector Harrison and his baby elephant Jo-Dee (who found the microphone, piano. and technical equipment in 2YA’s studios fascinating playthings). Yuletide Plays Some weeks ago the NZBS Production Studios recorded a nativity play called The Three Kings, written by Mordaunt Currie, with music by Armstrong Gibbs. There are 19 players in.

the cast and the music, for chorus, strings and organ is. by Wellington musicians conducted by Harry Brusey. The Three Kings will be heard from 2YA on Christmas Day at 9.32 p.m. Other plays to be broadcast on Christmas Day include The Lovely Lady of Bethlehem, another NZBS production, from 2YZ at 9.30 pm.

Bethlehem, a choral drama _ by Rutland Boughton, adapted from the Coventry Nativity Play, from 1XH at 94 pm.; Quietly History Enters, by John Gundry, an NZBS production, from 1YA at 4.0 p.m.; A Child is Born, by Stephen Vincent. Benet, a "Voice of America" programme, from 3YA at 2.0 pm; and Round About This Time, by D’Arcy Niland, an NZBS production, at 9.0 p.m. from YC. Seasonal Music

Carols by Candlelight will be heard on Friday, December 23, from 3YC at 9.30 p.m., on relay from the Avon River bank and led by Clifton Cook; then on Christmas Eve from 1YA on relay from the Marine Parade, Devonport, at 8.30 p.m.; from 2YZ at 9.30 p-m. on relay from the Botanical Gardens, Napier; from 2XA at 8.0 p.m. on relay from Cook’s Gardens, Wanganui; and from 4YZ at 10.0. p.m. on relay from Kew Hospital, Invercargill. Other musical presentations | for Christmas Day will include Corelli’s Christmas Concerto, followed by Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, a programme prepared and narrated by Maurice Leech (4YA, 2.30 p.m); Carol Symphony, by Victor HelyHutchinson, a work in four parts based on traditional melodies and played by the London Radio Orchestra (2YA, 2.0 p.m.); The English Singers in a studio recital (2YA, 2.45 p.m.); The Christmas Story, a.fantasia arranged for sclo voices and chorus by Thomas Gray, directed by Roy Hill (2YA, 8.17 p.m.); The Christmas Chorales of J. S. Bach, by the Avon Singers, with Clarence B. Hall at the Civic Theatre organ (3YA, 3.0 p.m.); and a recording of music sung by the Christchurch Cathedral Choir in this year’s carol service (SYA, 9.30 p.m.). Midnight Mass will be relayed from St. Patrick’s Cathedral by-~1YA, from St. Gerard’s Church by 2YA, and from St. Michael’s Church by 3YA. (Other Christmas items will be found in the programme pages.)