ORCHESTRA PROGRAMMES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 434, 17 October 1947, Page 5

ORCHESTRA PROGRAMMES

sir,-tihe use your correspondent A, C, Mudford makes of the word "highbrow" illustrates an all too prevalent modern trend. It is the ‘custom for those who like what I believe to be inferior music to call the classics "highbrow," just as it is the custom for lovers of the classics to call: other music "trashy." I do not think either/ side is justified, but there is, I think, rather more fo be said for the "high-brow" music than for the other. People who have really studied music prefer the classics to any other form of music, In any case the classics have stood the test of time, which the lighter music has not. These points Mr, Mudford can hardly deny. Let him refrain, then, from using a silly mud-slinging expression like "high-brow." Mr. Mudford’s contention about three-quarters of the population preferring "lighter or more melodious music" is, I fear, correct. But I very much doubt his statement about the orchestra being supported by ratio license fees. These are all used, surely, in supporting. the broadcasting stations, and the orchestra is supported by subsidy from the Government, and by the admission money from the concerts given by the orchestra. Would Mr. Mudford and ether lovers of "light" music be content to pay the present admission charges, to hear music of the standard of "Jealousy?" In any case, the orchestra is a Sym: phony Orchestra, and should be given the job of a Symphony Orchestra. Let us keep our heads, and not insult some of the best musicians in New Zealand by asking them to give up the music that

satisfies, that lasts, and to start learning seven-day wonders like "Jealousy" and "The Warsaw Concerto."

JON

FRANCIS

(Christchurch),