MODERN BRITISH COMPOSERS
Sir--Mr. L. D. Austin has fallen into the trap of criticising quotations from my talk No, 12, the last of a series which is being broadcast every Monday from 1YC at 8.0 p.m. He should know that these quotations are. usually selected with a view to promoting the interest and "whetting the appetite" of the listener-which appears to have succeeded in his case. If Mr. Austin will dé me the honour of listening to the talk as a whole, he may then see it in its true perspective. I maintain that the Victorian era produced only minor British composers, excepting the Edwardian Elgar, about whose music I have spoken at some length, and also that of Parry and Stan: ford-not excluding Delius. I have left the 20th Century composers as "a climactic pendant. There is, however, one statement of mine he maligns, in which he must be corrected, I said, "We have inherited centuries of music which is preponder: antly concordant-becoming in process of evolution gradually discordant." This is not "nonsense," but an_ historical fact, and is therefore "inevitable." There is "dissonance" or "discordance" in all good music. In fact, "discord" is just as necessary as "concord." But surely Mr Austin should know this!
JOHN
LONGMIRE
(Auckland).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 741, 25 September 1953, Page 5
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210MODERN BRITISH COMPOSERS New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 741, 25 September 1953, Page 5
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