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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 38, Number 19. May 29 1975

Jenny McLeod in the clouds

Jenny McLeod in the clouds

Sir,

Since her premature ascendency to the Chair of Music at Victoria University, [unclear: have] followed the career of Jenny McLeod with concern, and latterly with alarm.

The decline in Miss McLeods musical and intellectual well-being in these last few years has been reported uncritically and at length in The Listener and elsewhere. For the loss of a former colleague and friend I feel a personal regret. The loss of a composer though, is a national loss, and Miss McLeods continued deterioration (The Listened, 21 June) in conditions of undiminished affluence and authority, is both pathetic and contemptible.

A composer who renounces music has only himself to blame, but a teacher of composition who renounces composing betrays his calling and his art. Who has considered Miss McLeod 's students? Has she? What sort of credibility can one place in a music degree awarded by a disciple of Maharaj Ji? Can those young musicians that have come under her influence also look forward to having all "the money and a house, all the established material values"?

A University that will not act to protect its students is unworthy of its scholarly duty. A society that is able to countenance Miss McLeod's present condition with amusement is as lacking in compassion as it is lacking in culture.

Yours faithfully,

Robin Maconie

(Robin Maconie is chief music critic of the Times Educational Supplement and Associate Lecturer in composition at the University of Surrey. His book "The Works of Karlheinz Stockhausen" is due to be published by the Oxford University Press in October, and another book on the New Zealand Composer "A Critical Edge "is to be published by Price Milburn Music.)