"Bach and Handel Were Misrepresented"

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 44, 10 May 1935, Page 50

"Bach and Handel Were Misrepresented"

To the Editor. Sir,-Your Auckland contributor ‘Modern Music" distorts the facts in his diatribe against the broadcasting of recorded classical music when he quotes Mr, Frnest Newman as stating that the music of Bach and Handel was good for the period, but that essentially it is secondrate stuff which is inflicted on our aundiences. This is a common case of isolated statements being quoted apart from the context, with the result that the intentions of the writer are. misconstrued. , If I remember correctly (and -I. ¢rust my memory. rather than that of your correspondent), Mr. Newman was complaining impatiently of the fashionable and jndiscriminate adulation with which the essentially: unmusical, or, rather, non: musicianly public, accepts every Bach or Handel work which is presented, Ne one: would be more concerned than Mr. Newman to have it understood that he had .classed the musie of Bach and Handel. in general as essentially second-rate stuff. Mr. Newman merely. pointed out that Bach and Handel, like all other composers have turned ont music that was less worthy than their best works and that was essentially second-rate, and he was pleading for a recognition of that fact. The following quotation from ‘Mr, New: man's recent article. on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the births of Handel and Bach ‘may help'to give better perspective to an important musical

question which has been misrepresented in an endeavour to give authoritative backing to the argument for the lowering. of the musical standard of broadcasting -programmes :--"Tt jis impossible, perhaps, t¢ make the man in the street see what it i> in Bach that endlessly absorbs and thrills the musician ; it is difficult, indeed, to express it in words to one’s own Satisfaction. But all the same it is there, and it is this that accounts for the vast literature devoted to Bach analysis, That analysis is not mere analytical chemistry — for its own dry laboratory sake’; it.is the effort of the musical mind within us to ‘penetrate to the profoundest secrets of the musical mind at its most musical... .. We go to the two men for two quite different things; but for all the beauty, the splendour, the grandeur, the humanity that endear Handel to us, it is Bach who holds us with a spell the potency of which increases with the years." The personal hates and abhorrences of an allegedly highly trianed musician to music "eanned and put over the air" carry little weight, and it should be remembered that the height of musical training is in no direct ratio to innate musical uppreciation. The musician referred to is evidently one of the many to whom the appearance and personality of the performer are of greater importance than the musie performed. Your correspondent should’ have dipped further into the writings of Mr ‘Newman, who complains bitterly of the humbug of personality in musical . performance and predicts that before long the really musical public wilk seek their music in the ideal surroundings of their homes from gramophone and radio which -are more conducive to intelligent listening than the atmosphere of celebrity concerts. P--I am, ete,

Gore.

A. F.

MANNING