AIR FORCE BAND

Evening Star, Issue 23729, 9 November 1940, Page 12

AIR FORCE BAND

IMPRESSIVE, PERFORMANCE CONCERT IN TOWN HALL The Royal New Zealand Air Force Band gave a concert in the Town Hall last night, when the excellence of its performance was undoubted. Perhaps .Flight-lieutenant Gladstone Hill, who conducted, may be criticised for following the American trend of emphasising trombones and cornets, and placing little reliance on the basses, but it is indubitably a fact that such a movement is a popular one. In spite of this, the playing was of a standard seldom hoard in a band so large—it numbered 58 players, and it was enhanced by the perfect drilling of the drummers.

The mayor (Mr A. H. Allen) opened the programme with an official welcome to the band, and an appeal for the Spitfire Fund. This, he pointed out, had been initiated in other parts of the Dominion at a time when Dunedin, owing to its Patriotic Appeal, could not join in. The Minister of Defence (Hon. F. Jones) also spoke. Band numbers played consisted of the march ‘ Stars and .Stripes ’ (Sousa), the waltz 1 Maori Melodics,’ in which the drum corps, under Sergeant Hardwick, gave a fine exhibition of precision work with the sticks, two movements from Luigini’s ‘ Ballet Egyptian,’ ‘ March Militairo ’ (Schubert), ‘ Humoresque ’ (Dvorak), ‘ Thoughts ’ (Alford), the inarch 1 My Regiment ’ (Blakonburg), the descriptive number ‘ Babylon Nights ’ (Zamecnik), the sketch 1 Down South ’ (Myddleton), the march ‘ Father Rhino’ (Lincke), the song 1 Waiata Poi ’ (Alfred Hill), arranged for the band by the conductor, Flight-lieuten-ant Gladstone Hill, and the march ‘ Invercargill ’ (Lithgow). The instrumental numbers consisted of the duet I Lo Here the Gentle Lark ’ (Bishop), by Bandsmen J. A. M'C'aw (clarinet) and W. D. BofTa (flute) ; the trio, ‘ Three Fours ’ (Col-eridge-Taylor), by Bandsmen K. Thurkcttlo (piano), A. Munro (violin), and L. Carruthers (’cello) ; the clarinet solo, ‘ Les Alsaohiennes ’ (Le Thierc), ■by Bandsman M'Caw, a local player who received a warm welcome; the cornet duet, ‘ Ida and Dot ’ (Losey) by Bandsmen H. W. C. Geard and J. G. T. Hookway; the xylophone solo ‘ Sparks ’ (Alford), by Sergeant Hardwick ; and the trombone solo, l On V/ith the Motley ’ (Leoncavallo), by Bandsman L. Carruthers. In addition to possessing such an impressive group of accomplished soloists, the band also had in its ranks several vocalists of more than ordinary qualifications.

They were Bandsman A. Barr, who sang the tenor solo ‘ Serenade ’ by Schubert; and Bandsmen Barr, A. B. M’Whinnic, and A. Stein, who sang Ketelby’s ‘ Sanctuary of the Heart.’ Further variety was added to the concert by the presence of two well-known Dunedin artists, Miss Bertha Bawlinson and Mr Arthur Macdonald. Miss Rawlinson sang Elgar’s ‘ Land of Hope and Glory ’ and ‘ Short’nin’ Bread,’ and Mr Macdonald presented ‘ The Army, the Navy, and tho Air Force,’ and 1 There’ll Always Bo An England.’