Richard Walls Creem Magazine:

Robert Thiele of Flying Dutchman Productions, Ltd. has just shown me a copy of a review you wrote of Appelton’s Syntonic Menagerie in Creem Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 6.

You have no idea how pleased I was to read a critic who understands completely everything that I have tried to do. This is very rare and I am extremely flattered that you would take the time to listen to my music and to understand the kind of thing I try to get across.

This includes even the title! Although now Bob Thiele feels that perhaps we should have been more explicit about the fact that electronic music is the subject of the record, I’m not - sure since I don’t feel that it is important that something is electronic or instrumental or what have you. The main thing is whether or not it makes good musical sense, whatever media the composer desires. The only way 1 will be able to convey my thanks and to make you aware of how perceptive you are is to quote from a review in Record World. They say, “A madhouse of electronic sounds that will fascinate the buyers. Listening to it is like flipping the dials on a radio. You get a bit of everything as you glide by. Jon Appleton is the wizard at the keyboard.” As you can see, not everybody is ready for the kind of music I make. You will probably be interested to knoty.fbat I am coming-tc Detroit in January, 1970 to give a lecture on the Detroit Town Hall series. Perhaps I will have a chance to meet you then.

Sincerely yours,

Jon H. Appleton

Director, Electronic Music Studio Dartmouth College Hanover, New Hampshire