Ashley Heenan

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 802, 3 December 1954, Page 29

Ashley Heenan

N a series so comprehensive as the current Music by New Zealand Composers it is not surprising that master and pupil are sometimes heard together on the same programme. This is the case in the tenth programme (1YZ, this Friday, December 3, at 7.30 p.m.) where

Ashley Heenan’s "Three Traditional Sea Songs" are broadcast alongside the Questions and Answer suite and "Two Folk Songs" by his former Wellington teacher, Thomas Gray. Ashley Heenan subsequently studied in England at the Royal College of Music under Dr. Gordon Jacob and Dr. Lloyd Webber. He is now on the staff of the NZBS, and he was one of those who helped to organise the present series of programmes. Ashley Heenan has taken a keen interest in singing in schools, and in 1952 he compiled the music booklet for use in schools in conjunction with Broadcasts to Schools sessions. He contributed songs to the 1951. booklet as well. In 1951 also he wrote the musical score for the National Film Unit’s production Moana Roa, a film dealing with Pacific Islanders. This score reflected a long interest in Polynesian music, a subject to which he has given much study over the years. He has also done considerable research into New Zealand musical activities in the colonial days. Among his orchestral compositions the best known is probably Cindy, a light and graceful suite which has been played by the National Orchestra and the Alex Lind- say Orchestra, His "Three Traditional Sea Songs" were specially written for the baritone Donald Munro, who sings them in this programme, with the composer at the piano.