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Prize-winning Programmes

UNDER the title Who Wants the English Composer? a two-hour concert of recorded music compiled and presented by W. T. Bagnall, will be broadcast from 1YC at 9.1 p.m, this Saturday, July 21. This. concert is the winning entry in a competition held by the Auckland Recorded Music Society and judged by Dr. A. Heppner and J. Cc. Reid, the Society’s president and ‘vice-president respectively. The secondplace winner, The Pure in Heart, compiled by Robin Wood, president of the Whangarei Turntable Club, will be heard at the same time on July 28. "My entry was inspired by an article written by Vaughan Williams’ many years ago," Mr. Bagnall told The Listener. "You could call it a minor crusade." The article was an appeal for the return of English music to its rightful place of affection and esteem Within the deily lives of the people, but Mr. Bagnall would like to go beyond that to the point where English music will penetrate national barriers and be accepted wherever good music is appreciated. New Zealanders, he says, are now only on the threshold of appreciating the great surge of vitality that English composition began to feel over fifty years ago. His programme is designed to illustrate the rise of English music since 1900 and to deepen the general understanding of the works and composers represented. These are: Tintagel, by Sir Arnold Bax; Falstaff, by Elgar; Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, the Delius Sea Drift; and the Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music, :

In The Pure in Heart Mr. Wood has taken up the ancient argument of the arranger versus the composer in a pro-gramme-essay on purism in music. His programme will open with Bach’s Prelude in E, played first in its "pure" version by an unaccompanied violin, and followed by the Pick-Mangiagalli arrangement presented by. the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Works by Mozart, Liszt, Ravel, Pergolesi, Wolf and César Franck have been chosen ‘to illustrate other forms of purism and: arrangement. "I have endeavoured to be objective," Mr. Wood says, "though to the purist I *

-- would no doubt be a vulgarian, and the result will probably serve to strengthen the convictions both of those who are purists and those who are not." Entrants were given a free hand in expressing their own ideas of what is best in programme building, the principal condition beipg that each entry should be in the form the Society has found. most effective for achieving its objects — consisting of approximately two-thirds music and one-third explanation. Most of the narrative will be heard between works or, at other sujtable intervals, but in presenting Falstaff Mr. Bagnall. will also speak during the music. This half-hour item, he says, is full of allusions and private jokes which (continued on next page)

(contintied from previoiss™page) ' make it great fun to those’ with a know- | ledge of the plot. Without’ that knowledge a great°deal will be*lost, so he will tell listémers, many of whom, he considers, willbe ‘hearing’ Falstaff for the first time,: the .composer’s intentions as shown byrtitg G¥in. programme. notes. Of the value; usic of organisations such: as the ‘Auckla ecordéd Music Society, and his own ‘Club, oMr.,. Wood said that the knowledge gained by a study of recorded music ("which is often the best available in the best available: ‘orm"’) was the finest possible preparation for true appreciation of living performances, "Clubs and societies like ours are rapidly increasing," he added, "They are to be found in nearly all the main centrfés now. In some "musical circles there’s a- feeling that this growing attention to What is contemptuously called ‘cannéd music’ is a very bad thing indeed. That's absurd, of sjcourse, We concede that ‘recordingd ‘are. not a substitute for actual pe aances, but they do provide a means of obtdiniig a background of knowledge which :adds tremendously ‘to one’s enjoyment .in the concert hall. And that’s in addition to enabling us to hear\ works we otherwise might not hear at all." lw,

This article text was automatically generated and may include errors. View the full page to see article in its original form.I whakaputaina aunoatia ēnei kuputuhi tuhinga, e kitea ai pea ētahi hapa i roto. Tirohia te whārangi katoa kia kitea te āhuatanga taketake o te tuhinga.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19510720.2.13

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 629, 20 July 1951, Page 6

Word count
Tapeke kupu
667

Prize-winning Programmes New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 629, 20 July 1951, Page 6

Prize-winning Programmes New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 629, 20 July 1951, Page 6

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