Broadcast Music of Coming Week

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 34, 8 March 1929, Unnumbered Page

Broadcast Music of Coming Week

By

Bolton

Woods

"°Tis the deep music of the rolling world, Kindling within the strings of the waved airAeolian Medulations."’ -Shelley.

7] Trovatore" (The Troubadour). ROM 2YA, next Friday (March’ 15), some selections from Verdi's world-wide popular opera, "Il Trovatore," will be broadeast. Included in these is the famed ‘‘Miserere," by which tune most people identify the opera itself .The libretto of "Il Trovatore," written by one, Salvatore Commanaro, is based upon a Spanish drama of that name, and is considered by some as the acme of absurdity. Of the melodiousness of Verdi's score, many will agree with Kobbe that its unbroken beauty far transcends the futility of the plot, According to that writer one of the reasons why the plot of the opera seems such a jumbled-up affair is that a considerable part of the story is supposed to have transpired before the curtain goes up. Despite the apparent necessity of having to take one’s brains to the theatre when one goes to "Il Trovatore"’to thoroughly understand and master this most loved musical melodrama, the musie carries one on so that one forgets to worry about sequence of events and apparent inconsistencies. Rivalled only by the famous "Intermezzo," from Mascagni’s "Cavalleria Rusticana," the "Miserere" duet has an appeal to all the musical world, from the bottom to the top. From the adjacent chapel the death-bell sounds, and we hear a male chorus singing the solemn "Miserere": "Mercy on the soul that is near to its setting out upon a journey from which there is no returning; grant it Thy mercy, O divine goodness; let it not fall into the pit of hell!" The voice of SOATURUEREDECECG PARA NCEE LTA EA TACO ALA EEAPECU EYER UEAOUATEASOTUUD REESE LEAR Sa MINIM

Leonora is heard: "‘What voices of terror, for whom are they praying? , With omens of fear unknown, they darken the air." Her song ends with a sobbing refrain, but she is answered, with an effect that the years have been unable to diminish, by the voice of the Troubadour: "It is Manrico, her lover, who exhorts her to forget him;" and she sobs out her assurance that she is his for ever. Sung by Florence Austral and Browning Mummery, two first-class Australian-born singers, one can visualise the whole scene, with its prison tower, its anguished, beautiful heroine, and the doomed Manrico. Familiarity with "Miserere" has not bred contempt, "A Bunch of Shamrocks." HE song suite with which the Orchestra will delight 2YA listeners on Saturday, March 16, embraces about a dozen favourite Irish tunes. From the national standpoint it will be a warm quarter of an hour, all really human people glow with affection for the Irish. As a nation they have a creditable musical past, and present-day musicians num- ~ ber in their ranks many talented sons of Erin. During the present century work by men of the Stanford type made Ireland’s claim to be the mother of musical and poetic genius a vivid reality. Stanford published "Father O’Flynn" in 1888, in a book of fifty pieces, which were an effort to portray the varying moods of fisherman, peasant and mechanic. A man so near to the life of the common people as Father O’Flynn had to have a place in the volume, hence the song that delights and entertains whenever it is well sung.

Of an older generation, Thomas Moore is well represented in the suite by three famous tunes, each immortal and of enduring beauty, They are, "The Minstrel Boy," "Believe me if all those enduring young charms," and "The harp that once thro’ Tara’s halls." Each of these exquisite poems contains but sixteen lines -hbrevity being the soul of beauty in the case of Moore. It was the fashion, when the writer was at school, to set the scholars the task of putting certain lines of some great poet into the pupil’s own words. The job usually stumped most of the class. A good test would be to set the examiners themselves one of these ‘xyonderful Moore poems to transcribe and see how they got on. It would make amusing reading! . That dainty ditty, "The Dear Little Shamrock," is by a composer named Jackson, whose centenary fell last year. His Christian name was William, but he must not be confused with Jackson, of Exeter (an eighteenth century operatic and church composer), or Jackson, of Masham (a nineteenth century Yorkshireman), author of a ‘Manual of Singing." The composer of ‘The Dear Little Shamrock" was 48 years old when he died in 1876, very little else being known about him, save his claim to a niche of fame for history, Considered as a whole the suite has many worthy points, each song having its own way of making a place for itself in the affections of the hearer. One will bring a tear to the eye, and a clutch at the heart; another will charm with its merry jingle; all are full of fragrant, wholesome sentiment and real musical beauty. , -Continued on page 3. -iiii MMMM

Broadcast Music

QOontinwed from front page.) "The Unfinished Symphony." GCHUBERT'’S Symphony No, 8 in B Minor (Unfinished) is the best known of all symphonies, being written in 1822, and presented in the same year to the Gratz Music Society in return for the honour of being elected an honorary member; but only the first two movements were completed instead of the customary four, hence the title of "Unfinished."?" Why Schubert did not complete the work is a mystery, and one writer says we shall never know how little or how much he appreciated it. The work was never played or rehearsed in the composer’s lifetime, and when it was discovered in 1865, Herbeck, a Viennese conductor and composer, had it performed. Two years later it came in for a rapturous reception at the Crystal Palace, London, and since then all classes of music lovers have taken it to their hearts, The unearthing of the symphony was due to Sir Arthur Sullivan and Sir George Grove, who found the famous "Rosamunde"’ during the same expedition of discovery. One Schubert biographer, H. F. Frost, has said that this symphony always appears as a parable or representation in sound of the composer’s own life, typifying that brief but glorious eareer abruptly terminated just when its promises were being fulfilled; cut asunder by an inexplicable decree of fate when men had begun to understand its beauty and _ significance. Poor Schubert, he wrote in his diary, on March 27, 1823, "My productions in music are the product of the understanding, and spring from my sorrow; those only which are the product of pain seem to please the great world best." Hearing the "Unfinished" conveys to the mind the ‘song of the sea-the pulsation of the

-- waves, the salt-flavoured breeze, the expanse and freedom of the wilderness of water-all these are breathed forth by this exquisite tone poem. It bathes one in music, All listeners who tune in to 2YA on Sunday, March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day) at approximately 8.15 p.m. should analyse their own impressions when the Berlin State Opera House Orchestra play it on three exquisite Parlophone records A4024/5/6. Schubert’s "‘Ave Maria." AYA Broadcasting Trio will play "Ave Maria" (Schubert) on Friday, March 15. A note of no little interest was made by the composer himself in respect to the song, Most people are unaware that "Ave Maria" is a setting of Sir Walter Scott’s words. It was written in 1825, and of it Schubert said: "My new songs, from Walter Scott’s ‘Lady of the Lake,’ have been very successful. People were very’ astonished at the devotion which I have thrown into the Hymn to the Blessed Virgin, and it seems to have seized and impressed everybody. I think that the reason of this is that I never force myself into devotion or compose hymns or prayers unless I am really overpowered by the feeling; that alone is real, true devotion." The Banks of Allan Water. HE composer of this lovely air is unknown, being "A Lady." The writer of the words was M. G. Lewis, who, shortly before his death in the year of Waterloo, had pleasure of seeing the immortal lines set into music by Lady -. By some the air has been ascribed to C. E. Horn, composer of "Cherry Ripe," "I’ve Been Roaming," and "A Frog he would awooing go." The "Allan Water" that Lewis immortalises is supposed to be the one near Stirling, Scotland, where once an old mill stood on its banks, and led many to fancy it as the home of the ill-fated girl. The 4YA Harmonists will sing the glee.

lr ree A New Opera Star, LL Verdi’s previous operatic efforts were surpassed when he wrote (after a silence of 16 years, and in his 74th year) "Otello." The Credo, sung by Iago, represents an interpolation in Shakespeare’s play by that genius of librettists, Boito, whose times have been held to be not unworthy of the poet himself, Iago (Act II) reveals his inmost soul in bis Credo which begins, "I believe in a cruel god," and goes on to complete negation, after death-nothing. His complete cynicism and the evil feeling he communicates are enough to make one shudder. This most original and dramatic monologue, without parallel in operatic literature, with its vivid orchestration, is superbly sung by Giovanni Inghilleri, and as superbly recorded by the Parlophone people (AR1014). Of this new baritone, Mr. Ernest Newman, the eminent musical critic of the "Sunday Times’ (London) confessed that his was the most musical voice he has heard in the season. He made name and fame in his native Italy and appeared at Covent Garden for the first time last year, This wonderful rendering will be broadcast from 3YA on Sunday, March 10.

Ballet Music from Faust. "THE Auckland Trio will play at 1YA on Tuesday evening next, Gcunod’s Ballet music from his opera "Faust." When Gounod revised "Faust" for the Grand Opera, Paris, the traditions of that house demanded a more elaborate ballet than the dance in the kermis scene afforded. Consequently the authors reached beyond the love story of Faust and Marguerite into the second part of Goethe’s drama and utilised the legendary revels of Walpurgis Night (eve of May 1) on the Brocken, the highest point in the Hartz mountains. Here Faust meets the courtesans of antiquity, Lais, Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, and Rhryne. In this ballet we are introduced to the Trojan women, the Nubians and others whenever the scene is staged (which is seldom). Distinct dances are written around each great lover of byegone ages, The coming of a vision of Marguerite in the midst of these revels brings Faust up with a round turn, because around her neck he beholds a red line, "like the cut of an axe. He commands Mephistopheles to take him to her. The music of the ballet is exquisite and as an orchestral selection it takes a first place in the affections of concert goers and record buyers. Mallinson’s Songs. NHE two Mallinson songs to be broadcast from 3YA next Thursday, March 14, by Mr. T. D. Williams, b.ings us to one of the leading writers of the day, His songs brim over with human sympathy and musicianly interest. The accompaniments, ex~- _ quisitely wrought, are more than adornment, he seems to play tunes of romance on the strings of our imagination. It is surprising how many organists have developed into firstclass song composers. Albert Mallinson, a Yorkshireman by birth, takes rank among the best of them. From child musician to chorister, from chor-

ister to organist, from organist to composer-thus his life’s record runs. And besides having the sound practical drilling in the school of experience he has enjoyed the advantage gf extensive travel. health led him in 1891, to Austraifa, where, in the thriving bluestone city on the Yarra-Yarra he first met Anna Steinhauer, the many-talented Danish soprano, who eventually became his wife. A sympathetic interpreter of her husband’s songs, she has helped very substantially in making known his music to the world at large, Since her marriage, she and her husband have rendered entire programmes of Mallinson songs, which make high commendation easy to render.