STATIC

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 51, 1 July 1932, Page 7

STATIC

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SPARK

THE round-by-round description of the Sharkey-Schmelling boxing bout by 2YA was a triumph, and the pity of it was that it did not occur = on a Saturday afternoon, when more would haveé.been able té hear it. An excellent rebroadcast would have been possible, but I presume permission for this was unobtainable. The transcription, however, was a great viccess, anid all concerned are to be songratulated. ‘y * ee % 4 NHVER listen to My. J. W. Fergie * from 2YA without wondering why the crest or brand of our railways is not N.Z.N.R. instead of N.Z.R. A name is a wonderful thing and were our steel road and_ its appurtances int‘ariably referred to as our National Railway, the people would shortly realise that they own them, and are responsible for them. In season and out of season this should be broadcast, and just as often should the Broadcasting Board remind listeners that broadcasting belongs to them. Happily for the taxpayer broadcasting cannot be a liability, but the railways have been and can be again and again. But what would New Zealand be like without the long view having been taken, or again as Mr. Fergie remarked, what would it have been had there been no Royal Navy. Both services can be a liability, but they insure our being. The motorist may fairly claim that by taxation he has helped to make many country roads a real asset to the nation-in fact some are luxury racing tracks-but no motor service would assert, with the capital cost of the road a taxpayer’s liability, that it is not competing unfairly with the railway running parallel to the road. In my opinion, all motor services competing with the railway should be regarded as "express transit," and paid for. The extra cost should be attached to wipe off the capital account of the road ard the motor transport company charged rent of the road on a mileage basis. £ B a A LIVELY discussion was under way as to who was the most powerful person in Britain, and a North Briton asserting that Scotland had annexed England in 1707 favouted the Prime Minister, who is also from the "Land of Cakes. He changed his opinion, however, after hearing Sir John Reith, also a Scot, make his final speech from the B.B.C’s. old headquarters at Savoy Hill, The Director-General is prob-

ably the most criticised man in Britain, and no one has been in a more favourable position to mould public opinion. Sir John is not easily moved from a decision, and made up his mind at the start that he would not be a party to under-estimating the public intelligence. "Radio," he says, "ean make democracy safe for the world," and Sir John and his staff are endeavouring to make radio safe for democracy.

HE relay of the opening of the " Winter Show by 2ZW was made so realistic by the narrator that I feel attendance is unnecessary. If I do go, however, I intend to see the soap stall last, the description of which was almost overwhelming.

HE final programme transmitted from the old headquarters of the B.B.C. was one that stirred the emotions. Its character illustrated the development of British broadcasting. Inevitably the occasion had a note of sadness, but listeners and artists alike said bood-bye to the eight studios in the old building with the knowledge that there were twenty-two better ones in the new premises. Before there was uttered the solemn prediction of the future of broadcasting, a typical item was given from each studio. At the conclusion of the item the engineers were heard to drop connections and close the doors for the last time. The last words spoken from the old building and the motto of the B.B.C. gained an added significance when heard at one minute past midnight, as an epitaph, to the nine years in which entertainment and information had been distributed from the fam-

ous building on the Hmbankment. "Nation shall speak peace unto nation... . Good night."

(THAT famous composer, Rachmaninoff, was in London a few weeks ago, and in an interview expressed the opinion that broadcasting is bad for art. Rachmaninoff hates the idea, for he says that nothing can convince him that the result is artistic. How he reconciles this position with his agreement with the gramophone people to make his records is hard to follow. Is it temperament or is it insufficient inducement? Or, does the stand make for increased sales of recordings?

NOTICE in this Friday’s programme for 2YA that Mr. de Mauny’s orchestra is playing Coler-idge-Taylor’s "Incidental Music to Othello."’ Practically everything that Coleridge-Taylor composed is interesting music because, as he once wrote to the committee of the Birmingham Musical Festival: "I would not compose until I felt I had it in me to compose." Well might the Lord Mayor of the city declare: ‘We must respect the man who makes such an assertion." And our respect is the greater when we remember he was not more than 25, but at the time had already his now famous "Hiawatha" to his credit. The son of a Sierra Leone negro, who married an Englishwoman, his talent for music was manifested at six years of age as the following story reveals. One day the conductor of a Croydon theatre orchestra, looking out of his window, saw a little, curly-headed, black-faced boy holding a small sized violin in one

hand and playing marbles with the other. He éalled the boy in and put some music before him, and was delighted to find that he could play it in perfect time and tune. From that time the child, whosé nameé ‘was Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Was éarmarked for music. While still at school he led the class-singing with his violin, and began to appear in public. Some few years later he was enrolled by a local benefactor, 48 a student of the Royal College of Music. As a student of the collage the youth, produced the first part of "Hiawatha," a work that exhibited both racial and individual qualities, and attracted immediate admiration. It was in the Hall of the Royal College that it had its first performance. Stanford conducted, and Sullivan was present. The evening Was a triumph and heralded his brilliant career. That was in 1898, when Coleridge-Taylor was twenty-three. He lived only fourteen years morte, dying, like Purcell, at the age of thirty-seven. It has been said that not long before he passed away he sold the copyright of all his works for the sum of £100. Within a few weeks of his untimely end a fund was opened on behalf of his widow, who found herself in reduced circumstances. Thus not only did music lose a powerful disciple, but his dependants were never to reap any benefit from his life work of composing. In the twenty years since his death Coleridge-Taylor’s music has come to occupy an almost unique place in the affections of cultured music-lovers. He was in later life a fervid apostle of colour, his negroid origin being a matter of intense pride to him. A believer in the folk-song element in art, his aim was to do for negro music what Dvorak had done for Bohemian, and Grieg for Norwegian. If for no other reason the music for "Othello" must command our respectful attention, and I do not doubt the 2YA orchestra can give a good account of itself in this colourful composition, on July i. a La me BRITISH sponsored programmes from French stations, for French and British listeners, are likely to be much curtailed in the near future. The canny Gaul, although welcoming the income that these programmes have meant to his nation, is now finding: that France is slipping in radio development upon national lines. There has been so much correspondence, deprecating the commercialisation of radio by a ore

eigner, that the Post and Telegraph Department has asserted that the position now appears to be intolerable, Pa * " HOSE wireless announcers who inflict their "refaned"’ accents on the rest of the world and teach us how the words we are afraid to use are really pronounced, are finding the way to the microphone harder and harder. Recently at an audition one young man pronounced "Gregor Piatigorsky" correctly but faltered at "Ase’s Tod," the name of one of the movements of the Peer Gynt Suite, "Badinage’’ proved the undoing of an applicant who was safe on "Cavalleria Rusticana." Hach _applicant was escorted into a small studio and seated at a desk. He was handed a manuscript, the first paragraph of which contained such words as: "Athenaeum, belles-letires, sine qua non, apothegm, caballero, bel-esprit, stymological, and bon mot." If he negotiates the test of readifg these words, the aspirant is then asked to read this: A resume of a few of the programmes of the Philharmonic -Society’s broadcasts gives a fair idea of the genre of the announcer’s work during a symphonic hour. His musical terminology must be facile, for, although he may have prepared his continuity for the Handel Concerto Grosso, he may be asked to announce, at a moment’s notice, the programme notes for the largo, adagio, and finale of Haydn’s Symphony in B flat major. The following week his linguistic savoir faire may again be put to the test when he announces the ’cello virtuoso, Gregor Piatigorsky. Continuing in the Slavic vein, his tongue may trip over the announcement of Prokofieff’s suite from ‘The Prodigal Son,’ or he may meet his Waterloo with the pronunciation of the Czech Titans’ names, Antonin Dvorak, Drdla, and Friedrich Smetana. "Again, the Trauermarsch and the scherzo of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, together with Krenek’s suite from the music to Goethe’s ‘Triumph der Empfindsamkeit,’ will give him an opportunity to display his knowledge of German, "Of course, even the commonest of musical terms might sometimes prove a.stumbling block: ‘Cavalleria Rusticana,’ badinage, Kamennoi Ostrov, a Bach fugue, Puccini, Paderewski, Weiniawski, Tradier, ‘Ase’s Tod’ and ‘Peer Gynt.’ " Then the aspirant has to negotiate some tricky terminological hurdles, made up of words gathered from the

Far East-and what would happen if Wales came into the news can be left to the imagination-such as Admiral Shiosawd, Chapei, Whangpoo, and Tsitsihar. The entire script must be read through without a blunder to qualify for a job-which may perhaps be forthcoming if the applicant’s delivery and tone are impressive. What would happen to a candidate who pronounced the words so that anybody could understand them is not stated.

qyVs a great pity that conditions were so unfavourable for the rebroadcast of the description of the New Zealand versus New South Wales Rugby match, for with such wretched weather there were probably more listeners to this broadcast than to any other, for a long time. The announcer could rise to the occasion when brilliant play hap-. pened, too, so we shall all hope that better conditions prevail for the next match. Some of the rebroadcasts of 2ME have been 100 per cent., and the next one might be. * at ue YTATIC was fearful, yet I nevertheless enjoyed the short reviews given by Mr. W. B. McEwan (4YA) of some of the newspapers printed by the New Zealand Forces during the War. Like everybody else I have often read snatches from similar publications, but all. Mr. MceEwan’s fragments were new to me. The subject was not exhausted, and I hope further excerpts may be given in the near future. = = * NE of the brightest programmes from 2YA for. some time was that given by the Y.M.C.A. Optimists’ Club, under the title "A Darkey’s Birthday." We always expect some-

thing good from the Optimists, but on this occasion they excelled themselves, and I’m wondering if they can do it again. How many appreciate the fact that there must have been many hours spent on construction and rehearsal, before such a show could be made to go over with a swing? x Bs * (CSONDITIONS were very bad on Sunday night when stations remained on the air to attempt a rebroadcast of the closing ceremonies in connection with Pontifical High Mass at the International Eucharistic Congress at Dublin. At this ceremony a land line was to be utilized for His Holiness the Pope to broadcast a message with his blessing to the gathering. The many devout listeners must have been keenly disappointed that wireless conditions were so bad, but, apparently, New Zealand was not the only country to suffer, as it was announced that neither Australian or American stations were heard rebroadcasting. at at by (00D news ! Mde Margherita Zelanda is to tour the YA studios, and listeners throughout the Dominion will therefore be able to hear this delightful coloratura soprano to advantage. Madame has had a wide experience and completed her training in Europe, where she was received with much enthusiasm.