MODERN MUSIC

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 70, 25 October 1940, Page 18

MODERN MUSIC

Sir,-I think that your correspondent who signed himself "Not Highbrow" could have gone much further in choosing his nom de plume. He says that those who want to listen to the works of old masters, can always buy a gramophone and records. Unfortunately, all musiclovers are not possessed of large incomes. I should also like to ask him is he so little aware of conditions in his own country that he does not know that many records are now unprocurable, and that the import restrictions have cut off the supply of gramophone needles? He refers to the great composers as "soul-stirring, British-hating foreigners." That description is both inaccurate and stupid. The great composers have been citizens of the world, and no matter what their nationality, have always been welcome in Britain, and have added much to the happiness and the cultural life of the people there. I understand that Hitler and his satellites were the first to propound the theory that art should be strictly national, They drove all non-Aryan, really non-Nazi culture from their land, and let loose the spirit

of barbarism, with what results we know. If we want to grow spiritually and mentally, we should be ready to take the best from the music and art of all countries. Dance music, with vocal renderings by orchestral leaders may help to keep up the morale of our friend "Not Highbrow," but such stuff simply smashes mine to pieces. Am I to be forced to listen, is there to be no alternative? I think that with a judicious arrangement of the programmes we could both be satisfied. The tradition has grown up that classical music is boring, something above the heads of ordinary people, therefore it is often condemned without a hearing. I am reminded of a boy of my acquaintance who once informed me that he hated classical music, and, in the same breath informed me that the "NutCracker Suite" was one of his favourite pieces, He got the surprise of his life when he was told that that particular piece of music was generally regarded as classical music. The NBS could do a great deal in bringing home to the people ef this country the fact that much of the classical music is most tuneful, and easier to listen to than some of the nerve-racking discords known as modern music.

ORDINARY-BROW

(Wellington).