IN an age when we are witnessing an unmistakable trend towards cultural autocracy, it is extremely interesting to consider this volume written by Mr. Vaughan Williams, an English composer best known in America for his "London Symphony." In it he propounds the thesis that music is not the "universal language," but is rather a profound expression of a nation's soul.

Style is ultimately national. Indeed, Mr. Williams maintains that if a country is ever to produce a music which is really great, it must seek in the raw materials of its own musical spirit. With this thesis as a basis, he attempts to show how the great composers of all ages have found their ultimate inspiration in the folk songs of their own native lands, in those snatches of melody which have become the common property of their people. Thus Bach himself was able to produce his peerless fugues only because there had preceded him generations of smaller composers under whose subtle influence there had spread among the quiet people of northern Germany a habit of music.

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the volume is the challenge which Mr. Williams hurls at the budding musicians of America. "The music of other nations is the expression of their soul--can it also be the expression of ours?" He urges America to cease being the weakling admirer of European music and to develop its own musical idiom.