Dear Editor (Aug. 1972)

Humpty Dumpty!?!?

Dear Sir:

Last fall I subscribed to Humpty Dumpty magazine for my six-year-old son, Jeffery. Somehow we ended up receiving AUDIO--which, of course, is way beyond his head. We have no interest in receiving your magazine. Therefore, please cancel this subscription immediately and refund the cost.

-Mrs. Charles Ziegler; Pompton Plaines, N.J.

We appreciate the fact that AUDIO is beyond your son's abilities at present and have accordingly cancelled his subscription. A refund of the subscription cost is a bit difficult since orders which come in through agencies, as yours did, are accompanied by only a small portion of the subscription cost. At this point, all we can do is refer you back to the subscription agency, though we think you'll have no problem with them.

-Ed.

Classical Music, Bah!

Dear Sir:

I am a technician; I am also a former professional musician (bass fiddle). I am semi-well educated (still going to college), read a great deal, can't spell worth a darn, have two kids, like Satie, don't like Wagner, know something about hi fi (I sell it too), and don't like being written down at.

Yes, being written down at. All the monthlies seem to have one great bag in their editorial policies, yourselves included, and that is CLASSICAL, CLASSICAL, CLASSICAL. Classical this, classical that, classical the other.

Phooey. I like good music as much as the next guy, but too much is just that, too damn much. Classical buyers comprise some six per cent (?) of the buying public, yet the magazines cater to that particular six per cent in over 95 per cent of their editorial content and, seemingly, policy.

Well, I kind of like Blood, Sweat, and Tears, Buddy Rich, Cannonball Adderly, Simon and Garfunkle, and others in with my von Karajan, Ormandy, and Bernstein (just my rather pedestrian taste, though). I hear little of those and much of unheard and sometimes unhearable classical recordings.

I admit it, I am not a musical snob. I can't stand only one segment of the recorded material available (acid rock) and am open to all comers when the word music comes up. But how about you, you and the other editors of the other magazines, aren't you just a little bit snobby about your choices of music? Don't you peddle just a little heavily on the snob appeal of the classical and just a lot lightly on the unsnob appeal of the not-classical? I wonder.

-Thomas N. Ronayne; Detroit, Mich.

I cannot speak for the editors of other magazines, but I must say my own musical tastes are very wide though I certainly would not rate classical music in terms of sales. I believe that Beethoven, for instance, will continue to inspire people long after much of today's music is forgotten. This does not mean that I cannot enjoy jazz and other kinds of music far from it. As to snobbery, I thought the definition of a musical snob is one who enjoys (or pretends to enjoy) John Cage, electronic mayhem, or pornographic anti-establishment dirges.

-Ed

Now You Hear It; Now . . .

Dear Sir: I have followed with interest the proposed use of the Dolby "B" system for FM broadcasts. One thing bothers me, however, and I hope you can help me and your other readers by providing an answer in a future issue. What method will be used to cause the FM receiver to automatically switch the Dolby equalizer into or out of the circuit? Surely, it won't be a manual function, as the early stereo was. That would never do.

-John R. Truitt; LaGrange, Ill.

(Source: Audio magazine.)

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