DERRIERE-GARDE
SIR,—Mr. Hcyworth's letter hardly furthers the cause he advocates. Nci great discernment is required to declare that much of the contemporary music played in London is piffling; 90 per cent. of any music in any capital, now or in any other age, is pretty intolerable. This is not the fault of concert promoters or the Third Programme; to be fair, the latter does at least cover a wide variety of contemporary or new music, British and foreign. London concert promoters, on the other hand, do not.
Apart from the Society for the Promotion of Ncw Music, no forum for British contemporary music exists in the London concert hall. No promoter is prepared to exercise the patronage essential if our music is not to fall into atrophy. To displace one popular work in an all-popular programme is all that is needed. But perhaps there is no contemporary British music? At least one patron takes this view. The Royal Ballet recently went abroad to commission a three-act ballet (from a young German composer whose work well came within the terms of Mr. Hey- worth's curious adjective). This may well be necessary in a few yea time if concert promoters in the capital continue to discourage living composers by depriving them of the opportunity of hearing . their work.- Yours
faithfully, 19 Calthorpe Street, WC I ROBERT LAYToN
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