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Subject:
From:
Steven Schwartz <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 30 Apr 1999 17:40:32 -0500
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Noboru Inoue:

>Unfortunately, PBS radio didn't reach Japan..  So I would like to ask about
>another PBS lecture by Mr. Bernstein in 1976, Norton Lecture at HVD univ.
>later broadcast on PBS.
>
>Title was Unquestioned Question, I have a book that contains the
>transcription.

The Unanswered Question.

>In this book, Bernstein refers to Chomsky as its language theory is
>applicable to music(deep structure for language and music).
>
>I do not agree with universal grammer and innate capability of language
>of Mr. Chomsky; However if it is right, it should be applicable to music
>naturally.
>
>Question is how the lecture, especially refering to Chomky, was accepted
>or ignored or criticized.  If some remember..

Bernstein was patronized by people who hadn't read Chomsky on grammar.  I
had.  I thought he did a more-than-credible job explaining the fundamentals
of the theory and a brilliant job applying it to music.  Those are, in my
opinion, among the best Norton poetry lectures ever.  However, Joan Peyser,
in her bird-brained biography of the composer, alleges that someone other
than Bernstein actually wrote the lectures, something I find difficult,
though not impossible, to accept.  Peyser did such a poor job in general
(with no evidence that she actually knows anything about music), if she
told me the time, I'd check my watch.

Steve Schwartz

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