3YA Orchestra Now Ranks With Best

Radio Record, Volume VII, Issue 9, 8 September 1933, Page 20

3YA Orchestra Now Ranks With Best

Good Artists and Carefully-planned Concerts Mean Satisfying | Entertainment-Power of Suggestion-Splendid Work of Dunedin’s Philharmonic Four.

YA’S new orchestra has rapidly got into its stride, and can now rank as equal to any at YA stations Sunday evening’s programme saw it in fine form; good balance, intonation and effective harmonies made it a pleasure to listen to. "The .Story of the Kalandar Prince," from ‘Scheherazade," by Rimsky-Korsakov, proved to be a difficult number, which enabled the orchestra to prove its worth. ‘"Wingal’s Cave" and the selection frovi "Madame Butterfly" also saw Mr. Haz. old Beck’s charges playing efficiently and artistically. Mr. "Jock" Tennent, who has a sonorous bass voice, sanz

well, but "Requiem" and "The Blind Ploughman" need a lighter voice to make them successful. Cecily Audi bert sang as freshly as ever, and al! of her songs, though well known suited her. Despite the many letters in the paper regarding dramas, the radio one-act play, "All’s Well," last ing for about twenty minutes, was a great success, and a few more of this kind would soon give people a taste for short plays. * * " THE Maori concert from 4YA lasr week was On the monotonous side. bat a pleasing feature were the choruses, which were given in rea} traditional style’ Some of the soloists. especially Te Wera Couch, who sang "Komate," had melodious voices. Action-songs and dances came over well, and gave a fair illustration of the native poi and other tribal dances

R. L. A. R. NOONAN had quite a lot of interesting matter in his weekly W.H.A. discourse on "Psycho-logy-Suggestion" from 8YA. In the course of his talk he said that there were three minds-conscious, subconscious and unconscious. The unconscious mind was a case of extreme suggestion, a method of introducing ideas into a person’s mind without his or her knowing it. Perseverance differed from suggestion. He explained the case of a professor, who wanted to know how long it took for smell to travel. He held up a bottle to his class, and removed the cork. Shortly after the students pulled out their handkerchiefs. The professor then i1nformed the. class that the bottle contained water. Suggestion was an extreme form of hypnotism. Certain peoples in the world were more open to suggestion than others-the Indians and Hindus, for instance. They had the power to create illusion, because they made more use of hypnotism and suggestion than did Europeans. He instanced the rope trick as an illus: tration. Even in New Zealand the Maoris law of tapu affected all types of life with its stringent rules and disregard of them meant disaster. me "THE Philharmonic Four, of 4YA, knows how to put the goods over in the way of expression, blend and tonal quality. The numbers taken from a library that contained many vocal classics were given in an effective style that made their mark. "Oft in the Stilly Night," "A Rose in Heaven," and "Venetian Boatman’g Evening Song" stood out for excellent treatment. The Salon Orchestra played a programme that pleased, the conductor, Mons. de Rose, keeping his players well up to the mark. [DESPITE many uncomfortable happenings, life as a member of the Rhodesian Mounted Police has many compensations, according to Mr. Patrick L. C. Bell-Syer, who gave an interesting lecture from 8YA last weck. fe spoke of the fact that all recruits are first trained for a long period in England and that commissions are obtained only from the ranks. % % * Miss BELLE RENAUT (who has been away from the microphone since her marriage to Mr. L. Aitken, of the Christchurch "Press") returned last Friday and sang a series of old airs, but ones that were pleasant to the ear, Belle was always worth listening to, being the possessor of a natural contralto voice, but one with a soul in it. "Jim" Cocks is another "come-back" who used to sing over the air a long time ago. His numbers also were of days gone by, and came over pleasingly. = * 3 LL praise to 8YA for the splendid presentation of "The Legend," a sea drama, by Philip Johnson, and

arranged for the radio by Mr, A. lL . Curry, the 8YA announcer. The sea effects were excellently done, and compared favourably with "All’s Well," given a few nights earlier. Mr. Curry arranged the prologue, and arranged the music, consisting of sea chanties. The outstanding performance of the characters was that given by Miss Jean Carroll, of Oamaru, but she was closely followed by Miss Lillian Young, and Messrs. W. B. Harris, Peter Smythe, and J. Flewellyn. Hach part was ably carried out, and the proper atmosphere always kept in mind, Another factor in the success was the delivery, every word being distinct and properly ennunciated, Drama does not receive a good hearing from listeners, but as long as we have plays of this standard and produced in a manner that is applicable to wireless the so-called dramatic correspondents will have no real and genuine cause to complain. . # s Ss ME. CG. GORDON KIRK, B.A., B.Se., of Nelson College, who has been adjudicating the elocutionary section at the Ashburton competitions, gaye a few useful hints to would-be public speakers. Hig talk on reciters a while ago was straight to the. point and the same applied to his latest lecture. A speech must be good at the start, the middle and the finish, and the length of it depends entirely on the speaker. He should arrange his matter in an orderly way, and should speak out, speak slowly and distinctly. Never drop the voice, but try.and keep it at the middle register. The latter should be the mainstay of delivery. 2 cy = H published recently on this page a paragraph from our Chbristchureh correspondent in which it was stated that the Canterbury Rugby Union officials listened in to a broadcast of the Wellington-Canterbury match from a radio set installed in the officials’ room at Lancaster Park, The paragraph inferred that, while the Canterbury union refused to. broadcast its own matches, it was willing to listen in.to a broadcast of matches from other centres, Our correspondent has now discovered that the person from whom he gained his information was misinformed, and that the facts were incorrect. We apologise to the Rugby Union for the mis-statement,