5 JULY 1935, Page 22

OTHER PEOPLE'S MUSIC

[To the Editor of TuE SPECTATOR.] Sra,—The writer of the delightful article on " Other people's Music," has done well to draw attention to what is really only one particularly aggravating form of a prevalent craze. The rage to be considered " music-loving," or " artistic " or " advanced " or " internationally minded," is really a camou- flaged form of mental laziness. It involves the suppression of one of the supreme privileges of human personality—the sense of discrimination and the power of choice which should accompany. it. To mix everything up together in the name of peace or of education or of art is to turn the world into an immense second-hand shop. Such a world will no doubt be a marvellous place for experts in search of stranded master- pieces, but the tragedy is that the larger and more variegated the shop becomes the less chance there is that there will be any experts left capable of judging its contents with intelligence and good taste. Thus, in the end, as in the Chelsea street, there will be something of everything for nobody—except only, of course, the gifted authoress of your artielc.—Yours faith- fully,