Edgar Beach wrote:

> There are often very interesting discussions on this list about the
> value of atonal music such as ones "Blind Test" thread.  I, personally,
> have never learned to appreciate the music of composers like Schoneberg
> and Webern.  ...

   "Most people seem to resent the controversial in music;
   they don't want their listening habits disturbed, They use
   music as a couch; they want to be pillowed on it, relaxed
   and consoled for the stress of daily living.  But serious
   music was never meant to be used as a soporific, Contemporary
   music, especially, is created to wake you up, not to put
   you to sleep.  It is meant to stir and excite you, to move
   you - it may even exhaust you.  But isn't that the kind of
   stimulation you go to the theater for or read a book for?
   Why make an exception for music?"

 Aaron Copland, What to Listen for in Music.

Although I do find some atonal pieces beautiful - oddly, I was at a
concert listening to Webern's Symphony Op.21 just last week and reflecting
how beautiful I found it - others are not.  But why should all music be
beautiful?

Deryk Barker <[log in to unmask]>

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