MUSIC BOX

A great deal of confusion has resulted from the fact that an extraneous argument, incompletely stated, was used in this space Tuesday. It is obvious to anyone who read the article in the last issue that I feel the world would be no worse off if every piece of late Romantic music were atomized. But that belongs in a separate article.

For the present, it is necessary to emphasize the main point which got lost in Tuesday's shuffle. From any point of view but the one which claims late Romantic and Slavic music as superior to all others, there is no defense for the programs which have been aired in Symphony Hall for the last four weeks.

Essentially, a conductor may choose from a body of music including classic, Romantic, impressionistic, and, for the purposes of definition, "modern" music. Perhaps the most important of these general classifications is that which embodies the music (loosely called "modern"), which has been written in the last five years.

Once that has been played, however, there must be a certain semblance of balance. A given proportion of the remaining time should be devoted to works of classical importance. That which is left must be divided among the Romantics and the impressionists--carefully. The Romantic school stretches from middle Beethoven and Berlioz through Sibelius, and perhaps (in a false beard) through Hindemith and Schoenberg.

Therefore, extreme care must be used in choosing programs from the Romantic school. This year, we have heard Berlioz and romantic Beethoven, then Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff, and Sibelius. This week we shall hear Tchaikovsky. The choice here appears quite unfortunate. Perhaps this will be remedied later. But not even the ghost of an impressionist has entered Symphony Hall, despite the recent productivity of Milhaud.

The classicists who have been played have been badly man-handled. In all kindness, Spalding is just too old to handle the intricate rhythmical phraseology of Bach. And last Saturday, Koussevitzky gave a surprisingly careless and thoughtless performance of the Mozart Symphony in D Major ("Paris"). There was vehement distortion of dynamic effect in both Allegros; the Andantino last continuity through the effort to make it pretty.

Let us hear more classical and middle Romantic music; give us some Debussy, some of the modern French impressionists, possibly Honegger and Milhaud. But cease pounding at the late Romantics, for the sake of balance and because they do not deserve it.

In a later issue, I shall expand upon the above paragraph and the rather carelessly worded arguments of the previous article.