versely as they please. It would be a dismal
world if we were all of the same mind.
surprise comes from the personal note of
these reviews: as if Messrs. Casella, Mali-
piero, Bloch, and the rest of them had
publicly insulted the critics.
T is an old story, yet one that is
ever new. We are old enough to
remember shaking of heads and
even hissing at Central Park
Garden when Theodore Thomas had the
audacity to conduct the Prelude to "Lohen-
grin"- nor was there any anti-German feel-
ing then; in fact, one half or more of the
audience were Germans. We remember when
the Richard Strauss of the earlier and better
tone-poems was looked on as Antichrist in
music. When César Franck's music was
first heard in New York, one critic-and a
learned man, he was-wrote contemptuously
of this music coming from a "Parisian
boudoir." Alas, poor Franck and his organ-
loft; alas, the blameless César with his
trousers at half-mast, trotting about all day
to give pianoforte lessons to amateurs. What
was not said against Debussy? Crucify the
wretched impostor! Yet to-day the music of
Debussy is regarded by the more "advanced"
hearers in New York as "old hat"-to quote
from the slang of the Parisian studio, and no