Kyle Major wrote:

>much more classical exposure, gets sick and leaves.  Why?? I think (I've
>yet to do any scientific studies) that this is a question of exposure to
>the 20th century music.  I think that modern music has a lot to say, and
>intimately relates to our lives, perhaps in a way that older music doesn't.
>(Not that I don't love older music.) However, when people grow up with
>Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven they learn to strongly associate themselves
>with this music.  Then, when they try to associate with Varese it becomes
>quite difficult.  If you try to see Varese through the lens of classical
>(time period here) music, it doesn't work.

Yet, the music of Varese is usually discussed in theoretical circles with
the same vocabulary and methodology applied to Beethoven or Mozart.  True,
his concepts of form were very personal, as was his harmonic vocabulary.

>Now, for the youth and for people with less exposure and conditioning
>perhaps Webern bagatelles are the place to start.

For me the question is really not how to open the ears, minds and hearts
of individuals to the wide range of vocabularies and expression in all art
music, but to try and understand why we as listeners may be closed to parts
of it.

If a child is raised on drinks that are free of sugar will they gravitate
towards sugar later in life? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. Some people
don't care for dry wines, yet how many who like a dry wine liked it the
first time? Is it best to put some sugar in a dry wine the first time you
have it? My response is, "hell no!"

I know my analogy is flawed as one might think that I am making a
comparison between Beethoven as being sugar and modern music as not having
any sugar and being healthier for you, but in a sense it is as judgemental
as anything else.  My point is to present the music on equal terms.
Beethoven can be just as good for you as Schoenberg.  For some, Schoenberg
and be sugar, so in that instance the Beethoven can be the non sugar.  We
need both, assuming that we think of music as something more than something
that is only there to be "enjoyed."

Sorry for being so long winded on this one...but for ME, I prefer
expression that challenges me and opens me to other ways of thinking.  For
me it is a challenge to sit through an entire Haydn Symphony!  For others,
that is not the case.  While you may not like the other way of thinking (or
in this case the vocabulary or the expression) or its content, there is
much to be gained by the process.  Some will value the process, yet others
will not.  For me the question is more about who will value the process and
who will not.  Also I fundamentally believe that there is value in that
process.  For me, when those who program the venues of art cater to a
"majority" we lose that plurality of thinking which is fundmental to a
healthy environment, just as the opposite, incest leads to retardation.

Karl