Experiment

From Mexico to Manhattan not long ago came Julian Carrillo, composer, onetime director of Mexico's national conservatory. Composer Carrillo has a system all his own. He has substituted numbers for notes, written music in quarter, eighth and 16th tones, and perfected instruments to play them--an "arpacitera" or harp zither, having 97 tones within the octave in subdivisions of 16ths; a French horn, made in Manhattan, that plays 16ths; an "octavina" that plays eighths; a guitar that plays quarters; and an ordinary cello and violin on which were played quarters and eighths. Last week the League of Composers gave a concert in Manhattan, presented among other things, Composer Carrillo's "Sonata Quasi Fantasia," with Composer Carillo as conductor. Critics, interested, found little beauty in the Sonata, saw, however, definite possibilities in Composer Carrillo's system, commended it as an experiment.