Jocelyn Wang:

>I didn't see the interview, nor have I heard Joel's attempts at classical
>music; nor is this is not an attempt to resurrect a tired and fruitless
>debate, but Joel is hardly the only one who identifies Schoenberg and his
>atonal followers as villians.

Actually, a lot of people who identify Schoenberg and his atonal followers
as villains have never heard a piece by Schoenberg or his followers, or,
if so, maybe one piece.

Today, I was rehearsing for a choral concert, and I heard something that
made me ill.  The choir director expressed an interest in performing choral
work by Hindemith and Schoenberg (one of whom is tonal, the other not
always atonal).  Several singers turned up their noses at the idea.  I
asked them which pieces they had heard, since I can think of several by
both eminently worth doing.  They were reluctant to respond, so I asked
them if they'd heard the 6 Chansons, the Songs on Old Texts, the Hindemith
Mass, the 12 Madrigals, the Schoenberg canons, Dreimal tausend Jahre, or
De Profundis.  Of course, they hadn't heard any of these things.  They've
simply repeated a religious mantra.  "I say it's spinach, and I say the
hell with it."

Our repertoire is mainly sacred music of the Renaissance.  We will sing
tomorrow works by Palestrina, Vittoria, Faure, Byrd, Viadana, Cesar Franck,
Randall Thompson, and spiritual arrangments by Shaw and Dawson.  It looks
like I'll be singing this music and only this music for the rest of my
life.  Welcome to my own private hell.

Steve Schwartz