Broadcast Music for Coming Week

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 7, 30 August 1929, Page 13

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.

"Pinafore’s" Jubilee. HE Gilbert and Sullivan -opera, "H.M.S. Pinafore, was first produced in 1878, thus celebrating its jubilee last year. ‘There is an interesting little story of how the popularity of their works preceded the librettast. and composer on their visit to the United States. During the course of their tour, Sullivan visited a mining camp and immediately upon being introduced, one of the miners said, "How much do you weigh?" Rather astonished, ‘Sullivan replied, "About one hundred and sixty pounds." "And do ‘ you mean to tell me that you licked . John §. Blackmore down in Kansas City?" asked the miner. "No," replied Sullivan. "Ain’t you John L. Sullivan, . the slugger?’ ‘No, I’m sorry," replied the composer. The miner pondered a moment, then his face brightened. "Are you the guy then that pu’ Pina fore together? ... You are?.... Come right in and have a drink!" The Studio Orchestra will commence the programme at 1YA on Thursday, September 5, with selections from 4 "H.M.S. Pinafore." Wagner’s Tender Heart. THERE are many stories told of Wagner’s kindness of heart and his love for:animals. It is related that only .once in his life did he kill an animal for amusement, He had joined a party of young hunters and shot a rabbit. Its dying look met his eyes, and so moved him to pity that nothing could have induced him to ever go hunting again.. The. impression then made on him is echoed in the libretto of his early opera, "The Fairies," where the doe is hit by an arrow: "Oh! see! the animal weeps; a tear is in its eye. Oh! how its broken glances rest on me." The 4YA Broadcasting Trio, will play one of Wagner’s compositions, "Song to the Evening Star," on Monday, September 2. Elizabethan Contemporaries. HERE is not a great deal known . about our early English composer, Jhomas Morley, but of his studies with William Byrd it is recorded "the said Morley became not only excellent in musick, as well in the theoretical as practical part, but also well seen in the mathematicks, in which Byrde was excellent." He became a Bachelor of Musie of Oxford in 1588, and was probably organist of St.. Panl’s Cathedra) soon afterwards. In 1592 he became a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and in Rolls of Assessments of the last years of the sixteenth century _ his name appears on one occasion side by side with that of William ShakesX peare, both citizens having their goods valued at the same amount. Morley composed a number of songs for Shakespeare’s plays, and is best remembered as a writer, of vocal music. ecanzonets, madrigals, ballets and other pieces for several voices. A record

a of Morley’s "Round About a, Wood," sung by the Salisbury Singers, will be . used at 4YA on Friday, September 6. Romantie Rubinstein. "TZ AMENNOI-OSTROW" is Russian for "Kamennoi Island," which lies in the’ Neva River. It was there, at the villa of the Grand Duchess Helene that Rubinstein, a welcome guest at the many festivities for which the villa was famotis, met many of the Russian nobility, and it was there that the inspiration for the composition of that name was received by the composer. The complete work consists of ‘twenty-four episodes or musical portraits of the various guests and personages encountered by Rubinstein while enjoying the hospitality of the Grand Duchess. "Kamennoi-Ostrow" is No. 22 of the series, and bears the sub-title "Reve Angelique" or "Angelic Dream," but it is generally known as "Kamennoi-Ostrow." We are told that it pictures the romantie attachment of Rubinstein for a lady of noble birth, probably Mlle. Anna de Friedebourg, to whom the work is dedicated and that the music was suggested to him during a walk by the river at sunset. The bell of a neighbouring convent was ringing, the waters were aglow with the setting sun. There Rubinstein walked with his love. The glory of the isl.nd is no more; its festive halls are silent, but this music lives and recreates for us a romantic and beautiful hour in the composer’s life. ; A record played by grand organ and orchestra, of the "Kamennoi-Ostrow™ will be used at 4YA on Friday, September 6. , Fragrance and Charm. RETHOVEN’S exquisite ‘Minuet™ is familiar to many through its many arrangements for various instruments. Beethoven, however, composed it for the piano, It is one of the masterpieces of music, perfect as to its form, captivating with its beautiful melody, its playful lights .and shades, and the picture of the old court dance that it invariably brings to the imaginative listener, Stately dames and ecavaliers moving. solemnly to its graceful cadences, smiling and curtseying in formal accord. The minuet is an old French dance rhythm, beloved of the composers of the eighteenth century and made popular by them. It has found favour with later composers and comes to us to-day with a frag: rance and old-time charm that is irre sistible. -~ s . The Ley’s Institute Orchestra’ have included Beethoven’s Minuet in their programme which will be broadcast from 1YA on Wednesday, September 4 A Fortune Won and Lost. . FRANZ LEHAR was born in Komarom, Hungary, in 1870. He studied in Vienna and Prague and held several

oo posts as conductor of military bands. He began with serious works, but soon changed his style and is now one of the most famous operetta-writers living. His success is founded on his melodious material, ideas and ingenious orchestration. He was the first composer to introduce special dancing parts for the actors after each song anc. duet. Also the influence of SouthSlav folk-song is clearly felt. He has written about thirty operettas, the best known being "Die Lustige Witwe" ("The Merry Widow"), which brought him a large fortune which the World War destroyed. His later pieces, by curtailing the dialogue, approach more closely to the comic opera. A record of selections from "The Merry Widow" will be used at 4YA on Tuesday, September 3. Light-hearted Musie. TW the rather exaggerated respect which we are wont to pay to serious music, thinking of tragedy as necessary to a higher plane than comedy, we are apt to do scant justice to the purveyors of light-hearted music whose whole aim is to add to the brightness of every day. It is a direetion in which British music has long been to the fore, even from the days when the making of music was regarded as a recreation rather than ani accomplishment. The whole world recognizes, for instance, that in the domain of whimsical comic opera, there is nothing like the long line of Savoy favourites. And, though our musical

comedies have often been imported from abroad, many English composers have shown that they can successfully compete with the foreigner in that bright and cheerful way. Hermann Finck, by no means the first bearer of that name to achieve distinction in music, has long been held in warm affection as a purveyor of bright and tuneful pieces, which have no other object than to entertain us. And that he has at command a real gift of fresh and natural melody, which he knows moreover, very well how to set before us, has long been known to a large public. The 1YA Instrumental Trio will play selections from Finck’s "Decameron Nights" on Tuesday, September 8. os ‘ Highland Dances. HYPWARD GERMAN’S. "Nell Gwynn" dances are among the best known of his works, and are a never-failing source of enjoyment. In the "Merrymakers’ Dance" he is especially good. The measure of this will be recognised by many a Scot who has "footed it" to something akin from time immemorial. Strange that these old English dances, as they are called, should have died out in. the southern portion of the realm to be still the vogue among the people of the northern. There is not a Merrymaking in the North of Scotland, which has not this class of dance as. the chief of its terpsichorean amusements. The 1YA Orchestra will play the "Nell Gwynn Dances" on Saturday, September 7. a --- ca = ee