The reply of this journal's musical critic to the letters recently appearing in the correspondence columns relative to his treatment of the Municipal Orchestra's symphony concert last Sunday, will it is hoped close the matter. The question of criticism is always a difficult one as this newspaper has repeatedly emphasized, and it is very difficult indeed to avoid hurting people's feelings, especially in so comparatively small a community as Shanghai. In the arts there must of necessity be a considerable amount of very real enthusiasm, there would be no art if there were none, and the more enthusiastically people approach their subject the more sensitive are they likely to become on the one hand. and on the other the more severe the critic. For criticism is just as much an art as the rest of them. The differences of opinion over music are at times just as likely to lead to heroic battle as the differences between sinologues, and Shanghai has witnessed some wordy struggles in connection with that subject. The worst critic of all is he who approaches his subject from a completely blase point of view, praising with faint damns as often as he damns with faint praise. In his enthusiasm F.A. was not so felicitous in his use of English as he might have been. He has now frankly admitted it and properly apologized, and it is hope' that that will be the end of the matter. This journal willingly accepts his assurance that he was being perfectly impersonal in what he was writing. It would be contrary to its very old traditions to allow personalities to creep into such columns, and if his intended humour has been mistaken for a somewhat ruthless sarcasm, it was unfortunate. It should be borne in mind, however, that humour is probably more difficult an art than music, because it cannot be played on an instrurbent.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.