Doris VANE (Soprano)
JOHN THORNE (Baritone)
THE WIRELESS MILITARY BAND
Conducted by B. WALTON O'DONNELL pHERUBINO, the page in the household of the Count and Countess, cannot make up his mind, poor lad, whether he is more in love with his mistress or with the maid Susanna. He finds it impossible to speak to either of them without blushing and sighing. He has un. guardedly confessed to Susanna that he has written, poetry in honour of his lady, and the two chaff him mercilessly. The Countess commands him to sing his ballad, while Susanna accompanies him on the guitar. That is the air which is to be sung now, one of the most wholly delightful of all Mozart's seductive melodies. The gist of the poem is a request to be told what nature of thing love is, so that the singer may know whether that really is the malady from which he suffers.
IT has always been a temptation to composers to make new settings for traditional folk songs. It is a risky adventure; even when a folk song is not of itself a really good tune, it very often has so firm a hold on the popular affections that it is not easy to displace it. Indeed, sad to relate, it is often the worst tunes which are the best loved. Here are two examples by present-day composers, of old songs furnished with new music, and listeners must decide for themselves whether or not they think the modem tunes such as to oust the older ones from the positions they have held so long.
By JOSEPH BONNET
Relayed from the Bishopsgate Institute
Relayed from the Church of the Messiah, Birmingham
' ACH, GOTT, VOM HlMMEL SIEH' DAREIN '
(' Ah ! GOD IN MERCY LOOK FROM HEAVEN')
RYSPAH GOODACRE (Contralto)
TOM PICKERIKG (Tenor) ARTHUR CRANMER (Bass)
G. D. CUNNINGHAM (Continuo)
The BIRMINGHAM STUDIO CHORUS and ORCHESTRA
Conducted by JOSEPH Lewis
The text of the Cantata for the second Sunday after Trinity is taken from Luther's version of Psalm xii.
The accompaniment is for strings, two oboes, four trombones, and the customary continuo, the wind instruments being used for the most part to reinforce the voices.
For the first Recitative, by the tenor, the accompaniment is for continuo alone, for the bass Recitative and arioso it is for strings, while in the alto aria there is a solo violin part.
The aria which precedes the final chorale is thought by Dr. Schweitzer to have been taken from some other work for inclusion in this Cantata.
The first chorus is in motet form. and is sometimes sung apart from its context, as a motet. The chorale melody is given throughout to the alto voices, the other voices imitating the melody, alike as preface and accompaniment to it; the tenors begin, followed with the same melody, by basses and soprano.
Chorus. - Ah God, in mercy look from heav'n, and save us by Thy favour. How few Thy saints among us now, abandoned we poor wretches. For faithless men deny Thy word, and true belief is perished quite among the sons of Adam.
Recitative (Tenor),âTheir doctrines all are false and vain, against the Lord and His eternal truth ; naught else but man's imagination. 0 sorrow ! that the Church this wrong should sufier, while her the Scriptures can sustain. One makes his choice of this and one holds that; they shape their course by Reason's faithless rays, and dead men's graves they do resemble, which to the eye are fair to see, but foul within their mould'ring chambers with dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
Aria (Alto). - Let the doctrine perish which the Word perverteth. May we keep from false belief and every factious spirit, for with aweless lips they speak and dare defy the Almighty.
Recitative (Bass).âThe poor forsaken lie, their sighs, their bitter weepings, their many pains and needs, whereby the foe the pious soul afflicteth, the gracious ear of God Almighty now hath heard. Wherefore saith God: I must their helper be, I have their crying heard, the Star of Hope shall rise, the brightness of the Sun of Righteousness shall lighten all their path, shall be their Comforter to quicken and to guide. Myself their sad distress will pity; my saving Word shall be their strength in weakness.
Aria (Tenor). - Thro' fire the silver pure becomes, and by the Cross God"s word is stablish'd so Christian men throughout their lifetime in pain and grief must patient be.
Chorale. - Grant us, O Lord, to keep the faith amid a faithless nation, tho' men their part with Satan take, no pow'r of hell can ever shake the Church's sure foundation.
The words (English version by Dr. E. TV. Naylor) are reprinted by permission of Messrs. Breitkopf and Hartel.
from St. Martin-in-the-Fields
The Bells
Order of Service
Hymn, 'Praise the Lord! Ye Heavens adore Him' (A. and M,, No. 292)
Confession and Thanksgiving
Psalm 23
Nunc Dimittis
Prayers
Hymn, 'Jesu, Lover of my Soul' (A. and M., No. 193)
Address, The Rev. H.R.L. Sheppard
Hymn, 'Abide with me' (A. and M., No. 27)
Blessing
Since his retirement from the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, listeners will agree that opportunities for hearing the Rev. H.R.L. Sheppard have been all too infrequent: the greater pleasure, therefore, to find him once again occupying the pulpit he has made so famous all over the world. The number of friends made by Mr. Sheppard. through his broadcast sermons, must be incalculable: he himself wrote in these pages, a year ago, that the broadcast preacher, with only fifteen minutes at his command, has a wider scope than Wesley who travelled England fifty years preaching the Word. Not even the newspaper or the book can hope to reach, with the same power and intimacy, so wide an audience as that to which Mr. Sheppard will preach this evening, when he returns to his familiar church.
(For 8.45-10.30 Programmes see opposite page)
Appeal on behalf of the Children's Health Centre for S.W. London
The Committee responsible for the Ante-Natal Work, Infant Welfare, and School Treatment in Putney, Roehampton, Wandsworth, West Fulham, and Southfields have had to fight difficult conditions for many years. The growth of the neighbourhood and the increasing demand for advice and treatment have compelled them to take action. Their work is at present carried on in a converted butcher's shop. The object of the appeal, therefore, is to get money for more adequate accommodation and equipment for all medical work from ante-natal days until the child leaves school. It is acknowledged that only the continuance and expansion of such work can reduce the tragically high rate of mortality in maternity and improve the health of the children.
Donations should be addressed to the Hon. Treasurers of the Appeal (H.D. Wood, Esq., and W.S. Toon, Esq.) at Barclays Bank, Ltd., [address removed], and marked 'Wireless Appeal.' Cheques should be made payable to the Children's Health Centre and crossed 'Barclays Bank, Ltd.'
LOUISE MARSHALL (Contralto)
THE WIRELESS STRING ORCHESTRA
Conducted by JOHN ANSELL
JOHN HUMPHRIES has often been mistaken for one J. S. Humphries , and even the historian Hawkins confused them. It is to the enthusiastic researches of Alfred Moffat that we owe anything we know about John. Born in 1707, he died about 1730-still 'a young man of promising parts and a good performer on the violin.' He left in all three volumes of violin music, and the first is called in the preface, ' The first fruits of a young gentleman now not above nineteen.' It was six solos for violin with a bass ; the second volume consisted of twelve Concertos for two violins. They include a good deal of fresh and melodious music which is well worth rediscovering and offering to present-day audiences. DUPARC, although entering the ranks of music first of all as an amateur, was a pupil of Cesar Franck 's, and enjoys the rare distinction of having had one of his pieces arranged in two different forms by such illus. trious hands as Saint-Saens and Cesar Franck himself. With a stern self-criticism which the creative artist does not always show towards his own works, Duparc has destroyed quite a number of his earlier pieces, but a number of those which he has given to the world are rich in a beauty of their own. As yet he is best known to us as a song composer, and as listeners can hear for themselves in these three songs, lie has a fine sense of the dramatic as well as the lyrical value of the poems he is setting, and a real skill in finding the right musical expression for it.
FELIX WHITE is one of the present-day
English composers who owes allegiance to no established school. He began his musical studies at the early age of five, under the guidance of his own mother, but, apart from that, has practically taught himself. His first work to be given a hearing was an Overture ' Shylock,' played by Sir Henry Wood at one of his Promenade Concerts in September, 1907, when the composer was only twenty-three. Since then he has produced much orchestral music, some in the most serious vein, and some more light-hearted, as well as many smaller incidental pieces and close on three hundred songs.
The ' Arietta appeared originally as a Trio for violin, viola and violincello, and the last named instrument has interested him so much that he has composed a Study for twelve of them. In many ways he is among the most original of modern English musicians.
' His MERCY '
