The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-03-11
FRIENDS OF MUSIC
SEE NO RIFT IN Lutte
Memorial Concert Will Take
Place on April -, Says
Mrs. Lanicr.
BEETHOVEN Is RETAINED
Report of Clash Over German
Music at L. S. Soldiers
Requiem Denied.
BEETHOVEN Is RETAINED

In answer to the question whether It
were true or untrue that there was a
likelihood knocking al the door of n prob
ability--one woman had expressed it
that the concert planned by the Society
Of the Friends of Music as a memorial to
American dead In the war and scheduled
TO be heard at Carnegie Hall on April g..
with Arthur Bodansky conducting.
might not come off at all Mrs. James f.
d. Lanler said yesterday:
TT Is canard. There is no dissen-
sion"
Mrs. Lanier Is president OF the So
cisty OF the Friends OF Music.
A learned critic once upon a time
wrote thus OF the Society of the Friends
of Music:
THE old time Republican orators used
to brighten the dulness OF political cam
paigns by declaring In stentorian tones
that the Republican party is the party
OF progress, the party of freedom. the
party Of Ideals The Society Of the
Friends OF Music is that party in the
domain of tonal art. Whatsoever is new
and strange and hazardous excites pro-
found interest among its members, and
when they are listening to music which
no one else would venture to produce In
public they are in celestial ecstasy"
ut is a canard," repeated Mrs. La
nier. there has been no dissension."
AS she spoke there was nowhere in
her mind any coupling in the bettng-as
one woman put II yesterday-of the So
ciety of the Friends of Music and the
Christmas Music Corporation, which by
the mastery diplomacy OF Mayor Hylan
was prevailed upon yesterday not to
produce its projected programme Of Ger
man light opera at the Lexington Thea
ire Mayor Hylan had sent his secre-
tary, Grover A. Whalen, up to the thea
tire to state as forcefully as il might
seem desirable to the mind OF Grover A.
Whalen to state that the Mayor dieap-
proved of German music at this time
and that a rather considerable number
Of soldiers and sailors at large on fur
Tough and otherwise in this great city
disapproved Of 1t also.
Never Heard of whaIcn.
Nothing like this was In the mind of
Mrs. Lanier at all. Il may seem an In
credible Observation-Disclosures at the
door of the monstrous as one woman
put II yesterday-to state that there are
persons In this great city who never
heard of Grover A. Whalen al all. Yet
such is the melancholy fact. Mrs. James
F. D. Lanier is one of them.
Leaving Grover A. Whalen, therefore
entirely out of the discussion--austerely
out OF the discussion, as one woman
expressed It yesterday-Mrs. Lanier
went on to say:
1T is quite within the realm of the
possible that there are persons of such
natural littleness OF mind and spirit as
not to appreciate that Beethoven is not
only universal educational or belonging
20 the whole people, one woman had put 1t
Yesterday but that he was also n great
Democrat The concert of the Friends
OF Music will be given at Carnegie on
April 10. The orchestra will play Bee
thoven's Ninth Symphony. Invariably
art Is misunderstood by the ignorant
and the narrow. But can one forever
stop and argue the point with the igno-
rant and the narrow"
Then there has been some men
tion-?'
There has been no dissension.
cansrd; one wonders who could have
started 1t. Art and discussion do not
go together. Those who are abreast
know. for instance. that in London
Brahms's greatest symphony was played
aS memorial music at concert In honor
of the British dead and that in this
country also Beethoven has been played
as memorial music by Mr.. DamrosSL
IS there anything else?