Robert Peters:

>So explain to me why Picasso paints differently than Rembrandt and why
>Schoenberg can use very dissonant music in contrast to, say, Mozart? Simply
>because their aesthetics (the aesthetics of Picasso and Schoenberg) allow
>them to do it.  And this is progress in art.

Sure, as long as we're talking about the progress of a river and not the
progress of "things are getting better and better." I really don't find
any composer since 1750 the qualitative equal of Bach, Byrd, or Josquin.
Of course, that's just me.  Music aesthetics have changed, and technique
has widened.  But successful art, to me, is about focus and ultimately
limitations.  If everything is permitted, then it's not really possible to
call one composer or one work better than another.  The incompetent becomes
as valid as the master.

Steve Schwartz