David Burton writes about Stirling Newberry as a composer:

>But then I tried the Quartets: the one in D and the one called Roman
>Elegies.  I found myself listening to works that I MYSELF MIGHT HAVE
>WRITTEN!!!  The textures were remarkably similar, the harmonies too.  The
>biggest differences between these and my own quartets, I have written two
>myself, are that they have far more elongated forms than mine.  But they
>are not unpolished.  In fact there is much subtlety and sophistication in
>these works.  I'd love to hear a real quartet tackle them!

Although I am one those who have been blacklisted as being a nasty avant
gardedist I agree with the praise that David gives to Stirling.  I would
strongly encourage others to listen as well.

There was a BRIEF period when I too was a militant avant gardedist.  I
used to regard all contemporary tonal composition with contempt.  I loved
the hard hitting rhetoric but now it all seems rather old fashioned.  This
was the sort of thing people came up with in the 1950's and 60's.  I still
tend to regard Boulez in particular as the most important of all post-war
composers, but passionate disagreement is welcome.

However I find the bitter and cynical attacks on the so called 'avant
garde' who are really a very heterogeneous group of composers, to be
profoundly disappointing.  I actively promote interest in contemporary
composition and if I could do something to help the interests of the likes
of David and Stirling I would.  In fact in all my attempts to promote the
music of Boulez, Birtwistle, Berio, Schoenberg and Webern I do not think
I have denigrated anybody to try to prop up these composers.  Yet people
have unfortunately interpreted my attempts at promotion to be an attack
on other composers.  The result is that people then see a justification to
counter-attack.  Indeed the recent post by Achim Breiling on Ustvolskaya
contained nothing which was actually critical of anybody, yet the
escalating viciousness of the attacks on this composer were nothing short
of alarming.  This is the sort of negativity and lack of constructiveness
in musical criticism which really does deserve to be called as you say in
German 'Beckmesserei'.  I am afraid I believe that just as with Wagner only
the really great composers are subjected to this sort of nonsense, and so
this - rather than imitation - is the sincerest form of flattery.

>THEY ARE TONAL!!!  Not only that but they employ various devices to shift
>the tonal centre.  One feels that there really is somewhere these pieces
>are going.  They are not aimless, though occasionally meandering.  My own
>ideas usually take a far more direct route than Sterling's.

Yes Stirling is a tonal composer, but that is fine by me.  I disagree
that his compositions are meandering, and I would prefer to call them
affectionate.  The style is very 'neo-Romantic', and the lack of a
concentrated drive towards systematic and cohesive structural development
signifies that this is not the main aim of the game.  More important is
that the richly poetic and intelligent writer that Stirling is has full
expression in his music.

David Burton goes on:

>The only place you can hear one of my pieces right now is at
>
> http://www.geocities.com/dburton_1951/F000108.html
>
>as background music.
>
>This is the first movement of my Op 18 sonata for flute and piano. The
>flute part is not really distinguishable from the piano part in this
>version, sorry.

I'll be looking forward to hearing it.  I hope one of the positive benefits
of this unsavoury mudslinging on the subject of contemporary composition
will at least have the positive spin off of encouraging an interest in
contemporary composers.

>I could care less whether Griffiths ever hears it!!!

Well, as a devoted Boulezian I can tell you I have never thought very
highly of Griffiths as writer on contemporary music.  I find him dull
and insightless.  The sort of 'Beckmesserei' directed against certain
contemporary composers is much more flattering than the mindless praise
lavished on them by the likes of him.

Satoshi Akima
[log in to unmask]
Sydney, Australia