Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 760, 12 February 1954, Page 14

Open Microphone

-_~ — NEWS OF BROADCASTERS, . ON AND OFF THE RECORD,

By

Swarf

ary 14, listeners to 1YA will | hear a_ studio recital by Joyce’ Billing, New Zealand pianist, who has been making a career of music in Australia for. \" 8.25 p.m. on Sunday, Febru-

the last 10 years. She has. been staff accompanist for the Australian Broadcasting Commission in Sydney, and a regular broadcaster in chamber music groups. Her own group,, the. Grainger Trié, for which she plans the programmes (often including. her own arrangements), has been broadcasting for the last five years. Joyce Billing also plays the ’cello and is a member -of the Rockdale Municipal Orchestra in Sydney. In November last she went on -a concert tour with five other artists Per Sydney and performed in many New South Wales country towns. In March she will make another tour of New South Wales.

COMPETITION FOR COMPOSERS

N memory of Fred Mortimer, famous British brass band conductor, who died last year, the BBC’s Light Programme has offered two _ prizes for origina] compositions for brass. bands.

The prizes are 100 guineas for a threemovement suite and 50 guineas for a ceremonial march, and entries will be

welcomed by the BBC from musicians in any part of the world.

There will be three judges-Dr. Gordon Jacob (composer), Dr. Denis Wright and Eric Ball, each of whom has written works for brass bands. Dr. Wright was in New Zealand in 1951. These three men will read the submitted scores in manuscript, and the climax of the competition will be when the finalists’ works, three in each section, are played in a broadcast in the Light Programme. When the chosen works are judged at this public performance there will be four judges: Sir Arthur Bliss, Maurice Johnstone (head of the BBC music programmes, sound), Frank Wright (wellknown brass band judge) and J. A. Greenwood (veteran band conductor). The closing date of the competition is March 31, 1954. Details are obtainable from Frank Wade, Music Division, BBC, Yalding House, 156 Great Portland Street, London, W.1. aie

NOEL MEWTON-WOOD

os PETER HICKSON (Lower Hutt): Noel Mewton-Wood, the _ brilliant Australian-born pianist and composer, was found dead at his home in the West London suburb of Nottinghill Gate on the night of December 5, 1953. His death was believed to have been due to poisoning. The police said (according to

a cable) that there was no suspicion of

foul play. Noel Mewton-Wood was born in Melbourne in 1923. His mechanical curiosity could have led him into engineering, but music won from the first. Typical of his versatility was an incident at a Young People’s Concert when he played a Mozart Concerto with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In between whiles he, the star performer aged 12, could be found behind the scenes rapturously examining the electrical workings of the Town Hall grand organ. A public fund was organised to send the boy abroad, and in 1937 he went to London, and then to Lake Como to take lessons from Artur Schnabel. He returned to London to study composition with Frank Bridge. Mewton-Wood’s big moment came when he played under Sir Thomas Beecham with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 16. During the war he played to servicemen all over England, and gave classical concerts in Britain’s public houses. He broadcast for the BBC’ and toured the United Kingdom with Richard Tauber, Joan Hammond, Ida Haendel and _ other artists. After the war he returned to Australia for a short concert tour with the ABC. ~

UP THE BLOOD PRESSURE!

‘’ TALBOT (Wellington) asks for "some facts about Gene Krupa. Before the American Mr. Krupa formed his own orchestra in 1938 he

had established himself as "that ace drummer man," Through his record-

ings, movies, broadcasts and personal appearances it has, been estimated that he has "raised blood pressure of more young Americans" than any other modern instrumentalist. He was born in

Chicago in 1909, the child of an alderman. According to Collier's, nine husky young Krupas had wreaked such mayhem on the family piano that Krupa senior "refused point-blankety-blank to kick in for any more piano lessons." And that made Gene a drummer. A few years ago Life (U.S.) used a series of multiple-exposed photographs to show Krupa in action at the drums. So rapidly did his hands move that it was necessary to step up the speed of a movie camera. Apparently Krupa doesn’t find drumming a sufficient outlet for his energy; he keeps fit with boxing and baseball. te

WHY EVERYBODY STANDS

"| NQUIRER" (Naseby, Otago) writes: "Why does the audience _ stand during the singing of the ‘Hallelujah

Chorus’ in Handél’s Messiah?" The story goes that at the first

performance of the oratorio in Covent Garden on March 23, 1743, the whole assembly, with King George II at its head, rose to its feet as this chorus opened and remained standing to the end, thus establishing a tradition.

THE BODY IN THE POOL

* /HEN I was a schoolboy the games master lugged me round and round the swimming baths im a loop of rope attached to the end of a pole. Neither of us made much headway. In desperation (or

revenge) he suggested throwing me in at the deep end. Strong swim-

| mers were scattered about for safety’s sake. His theory was that if I got out unaided I would be able to do my couple of lengths in no time. I remember the splash, the tugging as I was brought to the surface and towed to the ladder, and the subsequent dehydration. Recently a member of the BBC staff was thrown, by three engineers, into.a pool from a height of six feet. But the sole purpose of this operation was to add to the numerous noises in the sound effects library a new "loud-splash" recording. The staff member was Sheila

Blower, who also spent several hours on a cold day, diving, kicking and swimming to add variety to the. sounds. This was not done in an indoor swimming bath, with heated water as might be expected, but in an open-air bathing pool on a country estate where there was no likelihood of any interfering noises. The BBC’s old "splash" record had worn out and had to be replaced.

ZOO MAN

* "Vf ORAR" (St. Albans, Christchurch) writes: "For about eight years 1, have been. listening with much _ pleasure to a programme from 2ZB, and for a time also from 3ZB, by Mr. C. J. Cut-

ler. 1 find all his. programmes exciting and in-

teresting, and 1 wonder li you could give me a biographical sketch of him as you do of other people. in Open Microphone. Charles Cutler, F:Z.S., F.R.M.S., M.Z.S. *(AM.), F.S.A. (AM.), who is 48 years old, has*been Curator of the Wellington Zoo for 14 years. He was in Southern. California from 1924 until 1934, with a break of 18 months on a snake serum~ farm -in Brazil, and in Mexico from 1930 to 1931, followed by a few months in Costa Rica afd Guatemala. He. came to Wellington in 1939. He was with. Radio KFI Los Angeles for two years in’ a programme called Animal Kingdom, and with, Radio San Paulo for 26 ‘sessions,’ "when I am sure the listeners, if any, got more fun out of my alleged Brazilo-Portuguese than information from what I had to say." Mr. Cutler has been broadcasting from 2ZB since 1946. He receives mail from as far afield as Queenstown and Kaikohe, falling, in the summer, to Timaru and Helensville. "The best programme I have done in this country was three or four years back, on the alleged Indian Wolf Girls. This drew 4894 letters, of which more than 900 were delightfully abusive," he said. His best friends are his wife and daughter, and his hobbies are "horses, chess, worrying, listening to other folks talk, and trying to hide my personal shyness." His dislikes are "subservient persons, liars, and having to put up with people who couldn’t keep a canary alive for six weeks, but feel they are entitled to tell us how to look after creatures of which they have probably never heard." Mr. Cutler tells me that the article from the San Francisco Examiner which you enclose, "Morar," is "about right though somewhat on the laudatory side."