Evening star., 1938-06-25
EUCLID STREET,


Having read your column in The Star,
ing records. I am taking the liberty Of
writing you. In the past year have
gathered together fairly good collec-
ton, and since reading your column
last Saturday have been trying to find
out why bought those records.
You list five reasons why you thought
one would buy records. OF your state
ments, the fourth and NTH, will admit,
apply in some respects to me. Yet
think that your assertion that recorded
music can be repeated in the home is the
fundamental reason buy records.
II once heard a definition Of great
music which impressed me very much.
Great music, stated the speaker, whose
name cannot recall, is music that you
like if you hear it once or a hundred
times I am not prepared to discuss
the merits of this statement, but the
fact that great music can be enjoyed
any number Of times is an important
factor in my desire for a collection.
my records are all of a classical ma
ture, consisting of piano concertos, SYM
phonies, symphonic suites and over
lures Perhaps you will think this is
being narrow in my tastes, yet wonder
If you can see the situation as I do. I
don't think am particularly dogmatic,
but I can see no reason for collecting
swing records. Swing music to me means
in a sense, satisfaction of ones innate
animal inhibitions, while classical music
appeals to the intellect. And since 1t is SC
easy to hear swing over the radio, and
also the fact that do not consider it nec-
essary for the advancement OF culture,
I think 1t is waste Of time and money
to buy swing records.
"On the whole I agree with your
views, but must confess complete ig-
norance Of Oriental. and particularly
Balinese. music. However, I am still
young and some day will probably add
this type Of record to my collection. In
closing. let me thank you for a very in
teresting column and a great deal of
food for thought.
Yours truly, s. H. D."
1t is not necessarily true that great
music is music you like if you hear it
once or hundred times"
One OF the worlds greatest SYM
phonies, Cesar Franck's legacy of beauty
to us all. his symphony in D minor, so
puzzled the critics on its first hearing
in 1889 that most of them left the hall
in dismay.
Gounod. master musician. staggered
in the lobby in complete criticism. Who
ever, he asked, heard Of an English horn
in symphony.
When you put this work on the gram
ophone for the first time. you are very
likely to be puzzled, despite the fact
that its modernity is modernity no more
having been made to seem mere child S
play. in regard to atonality by the works
OF such later masters as Scriabin, Pro-
kofieff, Stravinsky and others, to say
nothing of the great English composer,
Vaughan Williams, whose new Sym
phony in F Minor" will amaze most lis
teners the first time they hear it.
Yet everywhere among cultured people
the great Franck symphony, his only
one, is beloved, just as it is a favorite
with concert audiences everywhere
Probably few listeners will like it
throughout on the first hearing. The
glorious third (and las) movement, YES
all hearers like that the first time they
hear it, but often the long first move
ment, which takes five record sides,
leaves one slightly stumbling, mentally.
Few persons, we believe will under
stand or even like. the Williams SYM