MODERN MUSIC

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 August 1939, Page 4

MODERN MUSIC

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY’S CRITICISM. The Archbishop of Canterbury has raised up for himself a good many critics in one direction or another, and the chances are that he may find himself in trouble again by his excursion into musical criticism at the final service of the London Music Festival, notes “Lusio,” in the “Manchester Guardian.” “The Archbishop attempted to decide what was great music and was what “savage noise.” There ought to l be no place for the savage noises sometimes heard,” he said. “They are a degradation, I might use a stronger word —a prostitution in music.” But he seems to have overlooked the fact that what is denounced as savage noise in one generation may be acclaimed as great music in the next. The case of Wagner is a notable example. One remembers a spirited rendering of the prelude to the third act of “Lohengrin” on the terrace of a Swiss hotel a good many years ago receiving from a French listener the comment, “How he howls!” And that was quite a common impression.