25 NOVEMBER 1949, Page 20

Fragile, Sonorous, Evocative

sit,—It is always hard to describe in words the abstract qualities of painting or music, and the terminology of both is now inextricably mixed (" orchestral colour," for example, is a commonplace). When the printed word is as severely rationed as it is in present-day journalism, the job becomes impossible, and one is driven to a sort of " cablese " which one hopes may, by suggestion, convey something of one's feelings. Clearly, in the case of Mr. le Fleming, it does not. Nevertheless, the peculiarly individual quality of Miss Prunella Clough's colour-sense seems to me to reside in just that paradoxical mixture of delicacy and rich or resonant harmonies which I tried to imply, and for which the words " fragile " and " sonorous " still seem to me the best shorthand equivalents. —Yours, &c., M. H. MIDDLETON. 39 Thurloe Square, South Kensington, S.W.7.