THE WIRELESS ORCHESTRA and THE WIRELESS
Chorus, conducted by STANFORD ROBINSON
JOHN GERRARD WILLIAMS , bom in London in 1888, is perhaps best known as the composer of the ballad opera Kate, which recently had a run at the Kingsway Theatre. His sensitive music, cast in a present-day idiom, is always pleasant to listen to, and is free from excessive stronuousness. Mr. Williams not long ago joined the musical staff of the B.B.C.
In this work (based on verses by Rodney Bennett ) we are to picture an old-world garden. The happenings in it are thus told by the composer :-
(I) Clown. Grotesque antics.
(2) Pierrot. He is sadly thrumming a Serenade to Columbine, a la Serenade Espagnote.
(3) Columbine. She is concerned only with Harlequin, and to the plash of a fountain dances alono in the moonlight.
(4) Harlequin. The care-free, irresistible dancer. (5) Pantaloon. The old man dreams of the far-off days when he danced like Harlequin, and through his dreaming faintly hears a queer old tune ho used to know.
(ti) Pierrette (and Pierrot). Pierrette (to a Valse-like tune) chides Pierrot for his pining for Columbine. His feeble resistance (fragments of his Serenade) is overcome, and the two break into a few bars of danco with abandon.'
ORCHESTRA
Ring up the Curtain : A Harlequinade
7.55 CHORUS
A Cycle of the Sea:
Choral Suite (Words by F. Wyville Home) (a) Calm ; (6) Disquietude ; (c) Storm ; (d) Subsidence ; (e) Peace.
8.5 ORCHESTRA
Solitude \From ' Three By Haworth Falls ........ Preludes.'
THE second piece was inspired by a visit to the miniature Haworth Falls in Yorkshire, a spot in which Charlotte Bronte is said to have found a happy place in which to write.
8.10 CHORUS
Scizzars and Pumpy (Malo Voices)
Tragic Fragment (Mixed Voices)
The Hawthorn Tree (Female Voices)
Whither runneth my Sweetheart (Mixed Voices)
QCIZZARS and Pumpy are an old carter's two horses, Cæsar and Pompey.
The Tragic Fragment is an experiment in choral eolour, in which contrasted consonant and vowel sounds are used instead of words.
The Hawthorn Tree uses a traditional tune.
8.18 ORCHESTRA
Dejeuner Dansant :
Two Impertinences
(a) Valsetto Brute ; (6) Raguette extra see.
8.25 Chorus
Welcome, sweet pleasure (two-part Female
Voices)
Rondeau: Tears are her beads' (Mixed Voices) Searching for lambs (Folk-song) (Mixed Voices) Thou sent'st to me a heart (Male Voices)
Peggy Ramsay (Trad. tune) (Mixed Voices)
8.35 ORCHESTRA
Three Expressions
(a) Propriety ; (b) Prunes ; (c) Prisms