Edgar Beach <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Is it fair for me to assume that the majority of serious (for lack
> of another word) music lovers also cannot tolerate much of todays
> disharmonic stuff?

I find what you have been written to be suggestive of some assumptions
that I find problematic.  For example, I do not understand what you mean
by serious music.

Assuming you mean concert music, these days, much of the music being
written for the concert hall is tonal.  Consider the music of Adams,
Daugherty, Theofinidis, Puts, Torke, et al...quite tonal.

As for what music lovers tolerate, for me, it isn't a question of what
listeners tollerate, but what they value.

If one had to boil it down to what the general audience likes, I do
believe style has something to do with it, but I also believe familiarity
is the name of the game.

> Is it possible, for the lovers of Schoneberg and other atonal
> composer's music, to explain clearly why they do like it so.
> I know why I don't care for it.  It is because it violates my
> personal sense of what is beautiful.

Perhaps my personal sense of beauty is not limited to tonal music. 
As I write this I am listening to the Leon Kirchner Music for Cello
and Orchestra.  I think it is one of the most beautiful pieces of music
ever written.  It is non-tonal, with clear references to late Mahler.
The Adagio from Mahler's 10th is only vaguely tonal.  To my ears there
is more beauty there than can be found in Barber's Adagio.  I can also
find great beauty in the late music of Wolpe.

I value music that has beauty, but I also value music that is exciting,
stirring, frightening...and intellectually satisfying...music that can
engage my spirit and my mind.  I try to understand the vocabulary which,
in turn, leads me to meaning.  I would add that I look for many of those
attributes in anything I choose to read in a book, or in an article, or
look at, in a film, or in any many manifestation of the visual arts. 
I don't limit myself to human expression that I find beautiful.

However, to answer your question, I would suggest an experiment. 
Try taking a work like that piece of Kirchner.  Listen to it repeatedly
to the point where you can tell in your mind what note will come next.
While I cannot promise that you will find beauty, I sense that your mind
will find, on some level, drama and expression and, I hope, great meaning.

Karl

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