Taylor

Last week, in Manhattan, the New York Chamber Music Society gave a concert, played a new composition written for it--Portrait of a Lady by Composer Deems Taylor, scored for two violins, viola, cello, double bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn, piano. In the audience, reporting the evening's entertainment for The New York World, sat Critic Deems Taylor, listened while the likeness of his lovely lady took on shape and color in the bodiless air. Wrote he: "As one of Mr. Taylor's warmest admirers, we had looked forward with considerable interest to hearing his new work. . . . We rather liked one or two of his ideas, but his handling of them struck us as rather fumbling and inadequate. . . . The audience, probably composed of the composer's relatives, greeted the piece with what seemed to us highly disproportionate cordiality." Critic Taylor's confreres were less rigorous in their estimate of the composition of Composer Taylor. They, in their writings next day, used brave words: "Rich" (The New York Times) ; "Vivid" (The New York Herald-Tribune) ; "Delicate" (The New York American) ; "Tender" (The New York Telegram-Evening Mail) ; "Attractive" (The New York Evening World).