Clarity at all Costs

Sir,—In your issue of June 5 your record reviewer R. MacOnie tells us in his review of several new records of works by Stravinsky that a lot of guff is written about this composer. It seems that Mr MacOnie has in part of his review added his little bit to the accumulation.

I refer to the passage: "brass chords pianissimo which are so deep that one strains down with one's whole body to accommodate them." Mr MacOnie may be fully aware of what he means by this but many of his readers must surely find it quite incomprehensible. Does it mean that he shortens and widens himself by some yoga-like process when he hears such sounds? I really don't know. Perhaps Mr MacOnie could enlighten us.

Whether or not the composer reviewed communicates adequately to his public, a reviewer of such a person's work must surely make communication to his readers a prime consideration. It is therefore unfortunate that an article extolling the clarity of music justly noted for this quality should itself fall short of this ideal, so drastically, even once. It mars a review which is interesting, to say the least, to one who is not an erudite musicologist.—Yours, etc.,

I. W. Martin.