Music has frequently been characterized as an international language: its purely human expression was to be understood by all peoples, and it would therefore serve as a means of common approach and friendship between nations and individuals alike.

A new work by Béla Bartók for violin, clarinet and piano has been announced. During his visit to London a few weeks ago we had the opportunity of learning from Szigeti, who will take part in the first performance, some details of this work and the unusual circumstances of its origin. It was commissioned by Benny Goodman, a virtuoso clarinetist long recognised in America as a “King of Swing.” Benny Goodman's recordings of “hot” music sell by the thousand, and if he has not yet achieved the distinction accorded to Shirley Temple and Freddie Bartholomew of having a League formed in his honour, at least his “fans” are legion. Some of us, perhaps, have not yet fathomed the mysterious depths of “swing,” but that other branch of the art which swingers dub “classical” at least holds no terrors for Benny Goodman, who recently made a recording of the Mozart Clarinet Quintet—which, we hope, will also sell by the thousand.

It can no longer be inferred from the word “Symphony” at the head of an orchestral work that the music is divisible into fairly clearly defined sections, such as, in the first movement, exposition, development and recapitulation. There are, of course, and must be, contrasts in subject-matter, but these contrasts need not be in the places assigned to them by the text-book. Nor need the argument (or development) wait for a double bar, or the recapitulation be anything like a full repetition of the material of the exposition. This does not, by any means, imply a loosening of formal principles: only that the modern composer, in using material—as is mostly the case—that is not strongly anchored to a key-centre, must find other means of making the structure cohere in a logical manner.

Eugene Goossens spent several weeks in England during October and November, and made welcome re-appearances as conductor and composer in London, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds. He also made an appearance—no less welcome—at 295, Regent Street, where he chose several new works for his Cincinnati programmes. Among these were the Brahms-Handel Variations in Edmund Rubbra's new transcription for orchestra and the Variations on a theme of Frank Bridge by Benjamin Britten, for whose work Goossens has expressed no uncertain admiration. Goossens has been a strong pioneer of English music in America, and the reputations which many of our leading composers enjoy there are due to a considerable extent to his initiative and enthusiasm. Despite his numerous activities as conductor, Goossens has not neglected composition, and he tells us he has ideas for a large orchestral work which may take the form of a symphony.