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THE RADIO FOLLIES
A Midland Concert Party in a programme of Sense and Nonsense

The process of Stravinsky's musical development has been rather un! common since he began as a Romanticist, encouraged no doubt by the influence of Rimsky-Korsakov, with whom he studied, with a leaning towards realism which gradually dominated his entire outlook, and then finally within the last few years Stravinsky has repudiated all his old aesthetic ideals and become what is known as a neo-classicist, that is to say, he is now solely interested in music as music and not as an illustration of literary ideas or as an expression of emotion. Stravinsky does not believe in being hampered with rules other than those he cares to lay down for himself: dissonance and consonance are merely relative terms to him and, therefore, he will use the most ' advanced ' discord or the most obvious concord, according to the effect he feels to be necessary.

Stravinsky's neo-classical tendency also shows itself in his fondness for resuscitating old music. We have, for instance, the Suite on Themes of Giambattista Pergolesi which is particularly interesting because of the way in which Stravinsky treats the tunes of this celebrated and prolific eighteenth century Italian composer.