Broadcast Music for Coming Week

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 40, 19 April 1929, Page 4

Broadcast Music for Coming Week

By

Bolton

Woods

"Tis the deep music of the rolling world, Kindling within the strings of the waved airAeolian modulations." — Shelley.

Shakespeare’s Songs N April 23, St. George’s Day, is being commemorated throughout the New Zealand stations the birthday (and also the death day) of William Shakespeare. Many of the songs appearing in his plays have been set to music, and listeners will have the pleasure of hearing some very good samples on the 28rd. At 1YA that evening Miss Minna Kronfeld, mezzo-soprano, will sing, "Where the Bee Sucks," "When Daisies Pied" and "Bid Me Discourse." The first of these songs is set to music by Dr, Arne, the son of an upholsterer who lived near Covent Garden. His first serious attempt was in setting the music to Addison’s "Rosamund" in 1702. He died in 1778, and England must ever regard him as one of her most original and delightful musical eomposers.

‘When Daisies Pied" is a delightful song and appears in the play "Love’s Labour Lost." ‘This is also set to musie by Arne, and the melody is worthy of the words. Surely no higher praise could be given. "Bid Me Discourse" is from "Venus and Adonis," and the setting to be sung is the well-known arrangement by Bishop, that wonderful composer who has given us, among many other jewels, the immortal air, "Home, Sweet, Home." ‘On the same programme is "Hark, Hark, the Lark," from "Cymbeline," sung by Master Hrnest Lough, boy soprano. The music of this song is by Franz Schubert. The story is told that returning one day from a stroll in the country, the composer sought refreshment in the beer garden of a tavern. A friend there was reading a volume of Shakespeare. Schubert seized it and

began reading. Soon he came upon the verses, "Hark, Hark, the Lark." He was at once fascinated and exclaimed, "Such a lovely melody has come into ny head, if I had some music puper." Someone drew a few staves on the back of a bill of fare and there in the noise and bustle this beautiful song, so perfectly fitting the words, came into existence, "A Dream of Love." ISZT’S "Liebestraume" is one of the greatest favourites, and is familiar to all lovers of classical music, In this "Dream of Love" we have a melody of. deep, sensuous charm, full of tense emotion. The repose of its first utterance is disturbed after the first dozen measures. The mood grows more tense, and we are swept along by a rush of passion until: a climax of tremendous tonal splendour is: reached. The composition is a lve song without words. Twice in the course of the work the melody is interrupted by a brief interlude between the verses as if to give us an idea of the summer night where the scene is enacted. The work closes with a passage of soft, sweet, restful harmonies, a sig} of content in the final fruition of love’s dream. An arrangement of "Liebestraums" as a ’cello solo will be played by Mr. P. J. Palmer at 4YA on Friday, April: 26.

‘A Musical Invitation. THIS charming work, "Invitation to the Waltz," by Weber, opens with a simple phrase, the actual invitation to the dance, uttered by a mellow masculine voice. The reply is a soft soprano, charmingly feminine in its reticence and coyness, as if desiring a second invitation before uttering the much desired "yes." The invitation is repeated, more urgently, followed by the assenting treble, as the fair one rises to accept her partner’s invitation. A delightful dialogue ensues in which the two voices can be easily traced. Suddenly the orchestra enters, and they are off-and such a waltz-full of light, joy, and all the excitement of a brilliant ball. It fairly carries the dancers off their feet, rising to a little climax ecstasy. Then 2 second waltz theme appears, dreamy and languorous, It is the second mood ereated by every true waltz, which inspires in turn joyous elation’ and dreamy languor. Through the music can again be heard the two voices, but they are soon lost in the general murmur. Presently the dance ceasesthe orchestra is silent. Again is heard the introductory phrase, as the young man takes his partner to her seat, expressing his thanks ".: the pleasure of the dance. The work was composed shortly after Weber’s marriage to Caroline Brandt, the opera singer, and was dedicated to "My Caroline,’ The orchestra at 2YA are including this fascinating number in their programme on. Saturday, April 27.

Two Schubert Songs. "THE "Wrl King" is one of the earliest and certainly one of the best of Schubert’s descriptive ballads. . It dates from 1815, and was written in a white heat of inspiration immediately after the composer had ‘fead Goethe’s poem for the first wine composer was only eighteen, and he is said to have completed the song in one evening. Amateur accompanists who have wrestled in agony of soul and body with the. octave triplets of the accompaniment will be glad to know that Schubert himself could not manage them and made a very much simplified arrangement for his own use. "The Wanderer" is another of the early songs that reveal Schubert's genius fully fledged. It is, and has_ long been, one of the most popular of all songs both in the drawing-room and in the concert hall. Its publishers made twenty-seven thousand florins with it in the years 1822 to 1861, and to-day more copies are sold than ever. Mr. John Prouse is singing these two songs as a bracketed number fro 2YA on Monday, April 22. / "The Tolling of the Bell." HE "Funeral March" of Chopin is one of the best known of his works, and forms the slow movement of the "Sonata in B Flat Minor, Op. 35." The opening bars have been described by Kullak, as "the tolling of the bell, with which the funeral cortege begins to move." The chords and harmonies of this celebrated number tear the heart strings. From the midst of its weight of grief there arises a melody of heavenly beauty, a recollection of happier hours and blissful moments blended with hopes of immortality, bringing calm and consolation in its train. The resumption of the "March" once. more plunges the hearer into the depths of ‘woe. The programme from 1YA om Thipeday, April 25, Anzac Day, willbe opened with this compositiorm plaged by the station orchestra. "Tannhauser" Again. "['ANNHAUSER" is the second of Wagner’s great works, and was first performed in Dresden in 1845, The gonorous chant .of the "Pilgrim’s Chorus" is first heard in the Overture to the opera. That chant is subtly. woven into the changing fabric of the drama running through it like a scarlet thread. When the pilgrims are journeying towards Rome, the emotions of Tannhauser can be followed, the hungry repentance, the madness of despair, and last of all a shout and clarion of joy in the. presence of the anges over one sinner. that repenteth. Itis one of the best known and certainly one of the most popular excerpts from Wagner’s operas. _ The favourite band arrangement will be rendered by the St.- Kilda Band,

under the conductorship of Mr. Jas. Dickson, at 4YA on Tuesday, April 23. American Indian Folk Music; [ 1905 the United States Government gave Thurlow Lieurance, an American musician, a special commission to visit the Crow Reservation for Indians, and gather records of Indian music, This he did, and melodies ta the number of over five hundred were put into permanent form as a result of his living with the Indians, much as our own Alfred Hill lived with and gained the confidence of the Maoris. Much tribal music was unearthed, and after many years of work andmuch personal risk, Mr. Lieurance has achieved success. As a result of one expédition, which met with a serious acgident, Mr. Lieurance was injured, antl after being exposed ‘to.a temperaturf twenty degrees below zero, his legs. were crippled for life. His songs, especially "By the Waters of Minnetonka," have become famous the world over, and in his lectures he is ably assisted by his gifted wife, Bdna Woolley Lieurance. Miss Eva Bennett will include "The Waters of Minnetonka" in her numbers to be sung from 2YA on Saturday. April 27. A Bohemian Genius. We are told that Dvorak, while in the United States, made studies in tie music of the American negro, and became deeply impressed by such melodies as "Way Down Upon the Swannee River," which, although composed by a white man, have always expressed the pathetic, ‘mournful spirit of the coloured people. He is said to have written e "Humoresque" around the melody of this famous song, and there is at any rate something in the ‘"Humoresque" which reproduces the mood of "Way Down Upon the Swannee River." The two pieces "dovetail" perfectly, and one may ging or play "Way Down Unon the Swanee River," usin the "FIumoresque" as an accompaniment or obbligato and vice versa. A Kreisler record of "Humoresque" as a violin solo will be used at 4YA on Tuesday, April 23. A Musical Entente. "THE music of "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" and the words of the’ Irish poet, Thomas Moore, whose beautiful verses, written specially for this equally beautiful Bnglish air, is an example of the best "nd of unison between Hrin and AlHon. Thanks to Sir John Stevenson, a wry famous composer and good friend of Mobre, the grand old Stuart tune will now live for eve as a setting for a gem of lyric poetry, short and sweet. In the days of the Merry Monarch, Charles the Second, there was a very popular play produced called "The Rivals," written by Sir William Davenant, in which there was introduced dancing and singing. An actress named Moll Davis took the part of a mad shepherdess, and one of the songs she sang in the play was "My Lodging is on the Cold Ground," which is note for note the same tune that Moore used so advantageously 150 years later for "Believe Me If All Those Bndearing _xXoung Charms." The original tune was ~"~y Matthew Locke, and was used for a violin air in 1664. This same air found its way into Scotland :1so, where it was given the words "I Lo’e Na a Laddie But One." Trust the Irish and the Scots for knowing a good tune when they hear one. ‘It is only' fair to say

that the best Irish authorities do not claim it as their own. Laurence Tibbett, the famous American baritone, will broadcast this lovely old song from 8YA ‘iext Monday