considerable role in these eruptions. However, the identification of the
upper middle classes with this tendency indicates their adherence to
an æsthetic as well as an economic status quo. Any infraction of a new
impulse on values with which they consider their way of living is bound
calls forth the sharp reactions indicated by these now historic set-
pieces of philistinism; and to those who are interested in the possi-
bility of art finding new ways the varying facets of this book are
directed. In a recent broadcast a musician who has been one of the most
energetic fighters for contemporary and even Schönbergian music in-
ferred that it was wrong to write in the manner of Webern, whereas
it had been right, or at least comprehensible, to write in the manner of
Beethoven. This may be correct, but only if Webern's music lacks
validity and not a priori: otherwise, though we can trace often the
influence of Webern on composers of moderate talent, the
same applied surely to Beethoven: and, unless aural or other proof
is available, determines the non-validity of Webern as a composer.

In the flight from banality, music has moved some way from meeting
the current popular taste: this sociological phenomenon has progres-
sively touched all the arts: we are not trying in this compass to find a
facile explanation of this trend: it is clearly natural that the palette of
music should extend more and more; even now it has reached over
the border of known instruments to the sphere of electronics. The con-
tributors to this volume have tried to chart some of the paths followed
in European countries, and some of the tendencies which have produced
the salient figures. An interim report has, despite its closeness to its
subject, certain claims on attention.

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