VARIATIONS ON A FELT HAT

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 751, 4 December 1953, Page 7

VARIATIONS ON A FELT HAT

by

OWEN

JENSEN

New Zealander is not the silver fern or the kiwi, but the felt hat, Condition, shape and angle all tell their story. And so when you come to music by a New Zealander-the genuine article-it is not the beard of Brahms that sticks out, or the bleeding heavt of Tchaikovski or Fate Knocking at the Door, but a felt hat. You will probably know what I mean if you listen in to the music of five New Zealand composers to be broadcast by the National Orchestra from the YCs on December 13 and 20 respec-tively-Dorothea Franchi and Douglas Lilburn in the first programme, and Thomas Gray, Ashley Heenan and Warwick Braithwaite in the second. All of these are very handy at writing for the orchestra. This must be mentioned first for, after all, whatever = have to say, it is necessary to’ say well; and in New Zealand, moreover, a craftsmanship of the "local" composer is still depreciated by a lot of people. Let it be said again, then, that Dorothea Franchi, Lilburn, Gray, Heenan, and Braithwaite have all learnt their trade, and learnt it well. Whether you like all or any of their music is another matter. Back to the felt hat, then. In Thomas Gray’s Festival Overture, the old felt hat is on the side of the 2 of the real dinkum

head, brim well down, a, little jaunty, holiday style. Mr. Gray’s music, fit for a festival, is bright and brassy, jubilating with glorious clashes of chord and colour. With cheerful rhythmical themes, the impetus of the overture hardly slackens from beginning to end. Festival Overture -is boisterous hearty holiday fun. Ashley Heenan’s Cindy-A Square Dance for Strings, hat on the back of the head, is prepared to foot it with the best of them. This is clever and effective string writing brought off with almost virtuoso omniscience. In putting the theme through its paces with varied instrumental and subtle harmonic and rhythmica] touches, the composer makes this American folksong his own. Warwick Braithwaite’s Variations on a Personal Theme is the third composition in this National Orchestra programme of December 20. Mr. Braithwaite’s musical felt hat is a ‘respectable domestic one with: homely dents and a comfortably worn brim. The "Personal Theme" is from his opera Pendragon, "the child’s song from the beginning of the third act, which is quite a simple piece of music designed s> that any person could sing it without any trouble." The. texture of the music grows out of the theme, being simple and straightforward and for the most part diatonic, by no means "modern." Each of the thirteen variations displays a

different facet of orchestral colour from the pattern of clarinet and strings ’n the first variation to the whole orchestra brilliantly set out in the last. Two Major Works The first of these two National Orchestra programmes of New Zealand music will be broadcast on December 13 and will include Dorothea Franchi’s Rhapsody for Viola and Orchestra (soloist, Winifred Stiles) and Symphony No. 2 in-C Major, by Douglas Lilburn. Mr. Lilburn’s felt hat is one that has peeped through his music for some time now, the hat of the countryman who lives in the open spaces or upon the heights, and in this symphony, for a while, a little rakish as if the countryman had come to town and was enjoying the experience. This is just .a- fanciful way of saying that we have come to regard Douglas Lilburn’s music as part of New Zealand, in some tangible way. steeped in the aroma of the landscape; that this time, in the second movement, at least, there is a more sophisticated urban tang; and that now , the composer seems to know exaet!y where he is going. The Second Symphony speaks with assurance and unhesi- | tatingly moves towards the summits of its expression. There are four movements. The first, marked Prelude: Modg¢rato, is broad end spacious in conception. Themes appear: from them and around them the music evolves, builds up to climaxes and subsides again. Out of this variety of interest there grows an impression of inevitable unity. Landmarks of listening in this movement are the opening string passage, a theme by oboe, followed by clarinet and then oboe again end fiute, a passage for’ two horns and a_ bold trumpet. solo. The second movement, Scherzo, has a cheeky, sophisticated air portrayed by the crisp opening theme from the strings and perky, syncopated street-urchin tunes from oboe end clarinet. In the ‘middle section "chippy" strings make a setting for a cantabile ‘cello theme. The third movement, solemn. and introspective, is an introduction. to the finale. This is marked Allegro and the

sf suggestion to the strings to play with "springy rhythm" sets the mood of the movement. This is not jovial music, nor is it athletic. It is rather like a brisk walk on*a summer night, felt hat and all. If Dorothea Franchi,ever wore a felt hat, either figuratively or actually, I am sure she must have sent it flying into the air as she wrote her Rhapsody for Viola and Orchestra, for this ig music as fresh as a morning breeze. The Rhapsody won the Royal, College of Music’s 1951 Tertis Prize awarded to encourage composition for solo viola. (Incidentally, another New Zealander, Ronald Tremain, won the second prize in the same year.) Dorothea Franchi’s work is in one movement which seems to fall naturally into two contrasted sections. The style of the music is contemporary enough, without, however, any straining after effect, and to say that it reminds one of nothing else but itself is to commend its originality. The general spirit is lyrical as befits a rhapsody, and the orchestration, bright and cheerful, never overpowers the more modest but soating tone of the solo viola. This is exciting music as, indeed, is all tite music in these two prografnmes. Listen to them and, if you have a felt hat, you will probably -take it off to-all five composers,