Sir, - Given the implausibility of his position, it is hardly surprising that the Arts Council's music officer, Dermot McLaughlin (December 15th), should choose to challenge me for what I didn't say. It is shocking for him to confirm that the council has "no explicit policy for contemporary music".
It is scandalous, however, for him to suggest that the council is content for "the existing stagnant situation regarding performance" (his words) to continue until he can discern the heroic figures of "passionate advocates or `champions' " emerging glorious and triumphant. At the Sligo Contemporary Music Festival last month, he explained that it was never the role of the Council to initiate, only to respond.
When a key player holds such a view (which is not applied to other areas of the arts) it is hard to see how matters will ever improve. Can there be another major statutory agent of broad cultural policy in Europe which shows such a funding bias against the performance of music and, within such a bias, shows such neglect of contemporary music? - Yours etc.,
From Michael Dervan
Music Critic, The Irish Times.