Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 822, 29 April 1955, Page 20

Open Microphone

PIANO ACCOMPLICE

6¢T’M really an accomplicg as well as an accompanist." Eugene Rankin, the pianist from Hickory, North Carolina, who is accompanying Anna Russell on her New Zealand and Australian tour, said this to us when we interviewed him on the afternoon before their second Wellington concert. "You see, she goes in there and tears all this music apart, and one New York critic coined the phrase that I’m her accomplice at the scene of the crime." Mr. Rankin said that he had been with Anna Russell for a year and a half. They had done tw a aaa aaa ee, Fe ee

) trans-Continental tours in the United | States and Canada, and this was his first | trip with her outside America. But this

part of the world was not new to him, he said. During the war he had been communica-

tions officer on a naval repair ship in the Pacific, and spent several months during 1944 at the big naval base at _ Manus, north of New Guinea. "T’ve been an accompanist for the past four or five years with various instrumentalists and singers," he said. "For some time I was with Helen Olheim, the Metropolitan mezzo-soprano. I’ve _ also played for auditions held by concert managers, and I accompanied some Spanish dancers and Japanese dancers when I was in New York. Many years ago I decided to be an accompanist. I studied with Lenoir Rhyne at the North Carolina School of Music and with Harold Bauer at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. I did a lot of chamber music work there, and my interest in chamber music work is probably greater than my interest in accompanying. But there aren’t enough violinists and ’cellists who require a pianist to play with them full-time. I’ve also done a good deal of teaching the piano around New York," He said that tlie with Anna Russell was a job where’ a basic sense*of | humour was the first necessity. Piano technique was less important than the ability to keep up with the changes of mood and tempo introduced by the comedienne. "So much depends on the

An audience,’ he said, "and the performance varies from .oné audience to another. ‘Although the musical parts of the routines are set, the style of presentation does, vary a bit." In some of Anna Russell’s comedy routines, he explained, he took a larger part in the performance than an accompanist normally did. "For instance, there’s the Spanish routine where I have to holler ‘Olé!’ And in the one she calls ‘La Danza by Spike Rossini, I’m sort of the fall guy for the comedy, though it’s primarily an orchestral number in which she shoots the conductor: and all the members of the orchestra get into the act." *

EMINENT MUSICIAN

AS a piano teacher, critic, conductor and composer, L. D. Austin has taken a prominent part in New Zealand’s musical activities over the past quarter of a century. Next Sunday (May 8) listeners to 2YA will be able to hear a broadcast of Music by L. D. Austin, in which several of his compositions will be played and sung by Koa Nees (piano), Glynne Adams (violin) and Phyllis Turner (mezzo-soprano). The programme will be heard later from the 4

other YA stations. L. D. Austin is a godson of the famous _ actor manager, Sir Henry Irving. to

whom his father, L. F. Austin, a former editor of the London Daily News, was once literary adviser. He was educated at St. Paul’s School, London, and the Moravian Colleges in Neuwied-am-Rheim: and Chateau de Prangins, near Geneva. He showed considerable musical promise and on his return to England studied harmony and composition with Prout and pianoforte with Cohn and Leonard Borwick. He was a regular con-cert-goer and saw most of the great concert artists and actors of his youth in England, including Paderewski, Rubinstein, Ysaye, Patti and many others. In New Zealand he became widely known through his work as musical director at picture theatres before the coming of the talkies, and he achieved an enviable reputation among musicians and the picture-going public for his extremely clever arrangements of music to fit in with what was happening on the screen. He conducted an orchestra of 22 players at the De Luxe Theatre in Wellington, and at the Octagon Theatre in Dunedin is said to have eeseesey: his ON i ae ee Sa ee ee

orchestraswhile playing the» piano ‘by means of »special. ituminations:. which enabled* the players: to ‘see his harfds on the -keyboard;-»In his» weekly musical column, Thoughts About Music, which he contributes to a Dunedin newspaper, he has established something of a journalistic record,, never having missed an issue for the past 25 years. Mr. Austin’s | recreations are chess, billiards and swimming. For 20 years after coming to this country he rarely missed his morning swim even in Winter. He is also an inveterate letter-writer to the newspapers Some of Mr. Austin’s piano compositions have been played by the visiting pianists Isador Goodman, Fernando Laires, and Louis Kentner.

WOMAN ANNOUNCER

oN, "| HE only woman general announcer on the staff of Stations 3YA and 3YC is Tui Uru (below), who has been with the NZBS in Christchurch for the past five years. Tui is the younger daughter of the late Henare Whakatau Uru, a former Member of Parliament for Southern Maori. Her mother comes from Albury, New South Wales. Tui was born in Wellington, but has lived most of her life in Christchurch, Before joining the

NZBS in June, 1950, she jad been on the staff of one of the country’s leading newspaper

publishing organisations for over five years, _ Apart from her broadcasting activities, Tui’s main interest is in music. She has sung as soloist with the Christchurch Harmonic Society and at Canterbury University College, as well as at many social. gatherings in the city.. During the recent. Royal tour she was soloist at a reception given by the Christchurch branch of the Overseas League to members of the Royal Entourage. She is a Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music and has also passed the: practical examinations for A.T.C.L. in singing) and _elocution. Until August, 1953, she studied singing under the late Miss Blanche Atkinson, Over the years Tui has taken part in musical competitions during her holi-

days, and in Auckland ‘she has been runner-up for the John Court Memorial Aria _ contest. Last year she won the Women’s Vocal Championship Medal and the Pascoe Cup for the highest aggregate marks in the women’s | sections. She visited Australia with her mother in 1953 and successfully took part in the Sydney Eisteddfod and the South Street Competitions at Ballarat. Among her successes at Sycney was the award of the Dulcie Starkey Memorial Trophy as the competitor gaining the highest marks in a _ contest of winners of all the adult ballad competitions.

FROM. THE TOWN HALL

* D. A. GIVEN, ‘the ** NZBS technician shown operating _ the relay panel in the new broadcasting room. at

the Auckland Town Hall (above) has an easier task these days than he used to have. Until recently broadcasts from the Auckland Town \Hall were relayed by portable outside broadcasting equipment. This relay gear was placed any-

where that space could be found for it. Monitoring — checking. the quality of'the relay and

acjusting. the balance of tone--had to be done on headphones which, due to distortion, are not the’ best for the purpose. On one occasion a commentary on a professional wrestling match was being relayed from the ringside, when one of the grapplers was tossed bodily over the ropes to land on top of both the technician and his equipment. The result, for the listener, was disastrous. That has all been changed now. After negotiations with the Auckland City Council a room has been built at one side of the auditorium. A sound-proof window. has been built in to a side wall, rather like the producer’s control room in a television studio, and from this win-

dow the technician and announcer have a clear view of the stage and a large part of the hall itself. Modern-type outside broadcasting equipment with loudspeaker monitoring has been installed permanently. So broadcasts from the Town Hall are now able to be relayed with as much convenience as if they were being given from the studio. *&

WITH THE DUKE IN SEATTLE

| al [-ROM nine to ten o'clock on Thursday evening, May 5, listeners to 2YD will be able to hear recordings of a concert given by the Duke Ellington Orchestra at Seattle, Washington; on March 25, 1952. The numbers played at this con-

cert-which was part of a nation -wide tour by the -orches- | tra-include "Skin |

Deep," "Sultry Serenade," "Sophisti- | cated Lady," "Perdido," "Caravan," | "Harlem Suite.’ "The Hawk Talks." |

"Ellington Medley," and "Jam _ with Sam." The stars of the band at that time included Wendell Marshall (bass), Louis Bellson (drums), and Harry Carney (baritone sax). But perhaps the most important member was the arranger Billy Strayhorn, who deserves

much credit for the spirit and sound of | the orchestra at the Seattle concert. It | is hard to tell just where Duke leaves | off and Billy takes over, so akin are | their musical approaches, and yet Billy’s | ideas are completely individual. The | only other official arranger with the band | was Louis Bellson, who wrote "Skin | Deep" and "The Hawk Talks," and who | sparks the entire band with his tremendous driving beat and impeccable technique on the drums. Louis definitely broadened the scope of the band during the short time hé was with the Duke.

NEWS. OF BROADCASTERS, ON AND OFF THE RECORD.