Debussy. By Rollo H. Myers. (Duckworth. 4s. 6d.)
IN the 120 pages of this small book Mr. Myers contrives to pack all that the average concert-goer needs to know about Debussy and his music and to give a very fair impression of the background of French music between 5890 and 1954. Debussy was not a very attractive personality, but Mr. Myers shows the close relationship between his personal character and the character of his music. He explodes the recently fashionable (but signally unintelligent) theory that the artist creates in a kind of vacuum or watertight compart- ment from which the rest of his life is completely sealed ; and he does this cleverly by adding an epilogue describing " Debussy the man and the musician" and fulfilling exactly the expectation aroused by the foregoing chapters. The composer was, and looked, exactly what his music would have led us to expect ; and the fact that we might not have greatly admired him as a person in no way affects our enjoyment of his music.
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