ART AND MUSIC

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21213, 11 July 1934, Page 7

ART AND MUSIC

TO THE EDITOR OK THB PIUMSSir,—Whither arc we tending in our crt and music? Judging by the ingenious efforts being made by the champions of the former, and by the Atrocious stuff consistently hurled at our heads by the Broadcasting Board, it would look as if in both these domains men were turning their backs on the beautiful, and were deliberately devoting themselves to a cult of the ugly, and Were trying their hardest to persuade others to do the same. Tine Knideal is being mistaken for the real. Apparently, according to these expeii-., life uglier our music and art the more artistic they are supposed to be, ana their exponents the more aesthetic. When the mere layman protests, he is told by the highbrows that he knows less than nothing of the subject, -na must not venture to pass an opinion on either art or music until he is eau tared up to the principles on whicn they are based. That may be «* wli £ counsel-within limits. But is something that the layman possess in '.ommon with the expert, and wat is rtjn.se of tlw beautiful. Theie «ie nunc, it is true, who are colom-oh' a, and others who are "tone-deaf. ""{• allowing for these exception:., whicn arc remarkably few in proportion to the population, I still maintain that n requires no special education by tnc expert to enable the average mixiio appreciate what is beautiful, ine aesthetic sense may be atrophu-d.by neglect, or distorted through fcedmg upon the false, the mean, the "lerUri cous. But there it is, in each one ni 'is. asserting itself in unmistkable la..,hion when we are confronted witn wmething that is truly beautiful ana during to criticise fno doubt often in crude ways) whatever presumes to sti itself up in place of the genuine thin,This .seems to point to the fact that ■ while our perception of beauty is ex rendont on our development and. suofccMve condition, yet the .aesthete -'acuity is as valid for beau y as < . ••istronomer's eyesight is valid for on Irving the nebula of Andromeda, in other word.;, beauty has validity. Hence the artist, whether i i 'he realm of colour and *°" n / ol ° «ounci, if he be aiming at thei£" thing and not at some, unhealthy diiniera of his own imagination, c«m»°t help betraying the fact in nis work, and making all who shai y w n him the joy of the finished Pi?"""; «aze on some of the lesser glories of the uncreated beauty. , „ cl ,„ h When therefore we hear of sucn Widespread dissatisfaction at tnc iaie Provided for the public by the Broad casting Board and the Empire Art Loan Exhibition, there must be something Wrong. j , It is always dangerous to desceno from the general to the POfH cu K- B . t this is what I feel compelled to do, at 'east in the ease of music. A yttu •; ■h':i, c *pcricnce with a radio set maKu, mi. !§i "■

™L i Bload casting Board anyone Kood ™? 0 , ws th l distinction between knowingl? 2 nd "3 °PPo3ite. or who OnTh» 8 3 care ?>r the distinction? to m wi? go ? d music is ministered to flnrt i?** 1 ?! 8 ls »°« irritating than to find it followed, as it usually is bv used^o S L a J? pal i in S rubbish.Tuch Z speaknblo TiT d °" .° ne of those ™- th^iVnoJ e * ta l lan "street pianos" in nr tr T ets ?* f \ e less Aristocratic £m° London but which it is a -name to inflict on the listeners of thk onT n \\ 0n ; Fr equently I have been off £v ¥„',/"' She l r disgust ' tosvStch " s . t .r , in i. e t nt '- onl y to find that 51 'TT^J 1 on I have all or if ? « &o ™ ett , lng worth listening to; of' It th^t\¥k ky -" enou * 8h to hear hal * he end , i ls - not announced at ine end, a good piece of music beim? considered by the board as of less /mt twice J'il, 1S a i ways "nnounced Tw,W *Y ch s °lemnity! Once a svmuhonv*J " da y,evening-we had fun % y **? f Bachs - simple, and yet uu of haunting beauty such as mmt fortm^W ed al - 1 who hadtoe ™od sort of Whv^LteJ 5 V lve .! I c. to us oftener? or iK- llL»v Cr i astlng Swa "nee River," bo v«nii ke - A S G we all supposed to vvhv f keeS ' ol " dark ies? And; oh Sm a Ü bif a n^, e ™ y second'or third thinm SP hv n f th ? . de ™»d' for such Deonln r y a certam section of the C thJt ?£ £ onv 'n«d. from all I huiiPPrini )i a greater number are hose 2 f 5 what ,s >*«Uy good; and rf, wll ° are responsible for fcedinu er than m tM- SOU )f ° Ught to k™w betplonJlVolr^etc 1 : 0111 St ° nCS and SCM - July, 10, 1D34. ' IGNOTUS.