18 NOVEMBER 1932, Page 16

School broadcasts •arc now in full swing. And as I

listen to some of the B.B.C. instructors I cannot help wondering whether all this broadcast education is entirely for the good. I am among those who believe that, up to a certain age, half the benefit of education comes from personal contact with those who impart it. All this apart, however, I cannot help asking, as I hear Sir _Walford Davies turning music-lessons into a veritable bed of roses, whether beds of roses are exactly what is wanted in this connexion. Music without tears is all very well, but it can be carried too far ; and I sometimes think that Sir Walford's persuasive words, as he" likensa Bach fugue to a butterfly's flight, are conducive to false appreciation. He makes it all sound so easy-until you wake up ; and the trouble is that, under such tuition, some of his youthful listeners never will wake up.

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