He Writes His Songs All Round The World

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 36, 17 February 1939, Page 6

He Writes His Songs All Round The World

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WEARING a grey shirt and green whipcord shorts, a young man entered the glittering offices of Josef Eberle and Company, Vienna’s foremost song and music publishers. Sleek, elegant attendants raised their eyebrows at his unconventional appearance. But the young man was not daunted, He announced that he was a New Zealander and wanted to leave six of his songs. He was advised to call back in two days’ time for the firm’s decision.

Welcoming smiles greeted him on his return. A series of glass doors swung open until, finally, he was in that "holy of holies’-the great firm’s private office. The company would be "very pleased" to publish two of his sengs and place them in their eatalogue, That was in July, 1938. The young man was Mr. Alan Hicatheote White, of Wellington, woo has just returned from a ninemenths eycling tour of Europe. I'revious to that he toured Aiecriva, Great Britain, Egypt and Paiestine, Mr. White has written songs in es) yy country of the world he has vistied. He has written them in Veistininster-Abbey: and on top of

an Egyptian pyramid, beside the Sea of Galilee and on top of Hollywood hills. His "Arise, O Britain," which created a great deal of interest when broadcast in New Zealand on Coronation night, was written in Trafalgar Sauare and orchestrated in a small hotel just off the Strand. The words and music of over three hundred sacred songs have been created by this young New Zealander as well as_ three oratorios-"Son of God," "Triumph of Christ" and "Light of the World’--and scores of waltzes, marches, minuets. Of the two songs published in Vienna, "Arise New Zealand" and "Triumph of Peace," the latter carries unusual interest in the preface it contains, "Dedicated to all peace lovers of the world" and translated, at the publishers’ expense, into German and Italian. It reads as follows: "This song is the first of a series of ‘Songs of Peace’ or ‘Songs of Zion and Prophecy’ (some of which were written in Palestine) and is an earnest contribution towards that Golden Age when all the families of the world shall be united in Truth and Peace." it is surprising that this should have been published by a German firm, especially with the names of Zion and Palestine so prominently featured, in the face of the Jewish purge! ‘There is an interesting history attached to one of Mr. White’s most ambitious works, "New Zealand Symphony." This was accepted by a Jewish firm but the manuscript was later returned to Mr. White in London, with a covering letter to say that the company would not be able to carry out its obligations as the directors had been forced to fiee to Belguim, During his wanderings on the Continent, the New Zealand composer gathered musical material for his "‘Kuropean Symphony," which he expects to have written within ‘the mext-yearry 7s") 7 '-