CONTEMPORARY COMPOSERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 338, 14 December 1945, Page 5

CONTEMPORARY COMPOSERS

Sir,-Virgil Thompson in his article on modern music is attempting a difficult task when he tries to "reassure the bewildered." It is interesting to note that modernism in poetry has been resisted, also modernism in art tolerated on account of being a good financial investment. But it looks as if modern music has been foisted on the long-suffering public; this may possibly be accounted for by the desire of many people to be in the fashion. 4 The techniques that were thought revolutionary 30 years ago have now (according to Virgil Thompson) become a vested interest in the schools and colleges of the U.S.A.; this can easily occur when professors in music impress their own views on helpless pupils; especially in .a land where tradition is largely: abandoned and the newest is considered the best. But this teaching does not prove the value of contemporary musi¢. any more than the teaching of Nazism in the German schools proved the value of that ideology. Strauss in his "Salome" and "Electra" depicts the approach of a motorised army. Is there anything more devastating, barbarous, and inhuman in. the whole history of man than mechanised warfare?

"Convalescent" in his letter on contemporary composers expresses the view of listeners who use ‘the radio for pleasure and appreciation, The gaiety of life, also the deep religious feeling portrayed by early composers, is very satisfying compared with the restless tempo, the sense of frustration, or the spirit of mechanisation often portrayed by con-

temporary composers.-

ONE OF THE

BEWILDERED