Steve Schwartz <[log in to unmask]> writes (yes, Dave, this time it's
him):

>General recognition is as much a matter of luck as anything else, and
>people seem to understand this with respect to all music except what's
>generally called "atonal." I have yet to figure out why aesthetically this
>music constitutes a special case - why people should get so much hotter
>over this than over other music whose appeal is equally limited.

When we listen bad tonal music we may feel bored or disappointed.  However,
that music speaks in a language familiar to us, and then, there's no reason
for alarm: we "understand" it.  Its just like hearing a friend telling a
bad joke...one can anticipate the end of it.  But if I'm in a party, and
an albanese guy begins to tell jokes (in albanese, of course) and people
laughs around, probably I will feel uneasy: "I suppose that the joke is
not about me, it isn't?" would I say, with a broken bottle of beer in my
right hand.  Some wars have begun this way.  However, I would feel much
more uneasy If I discover that the supposed albanese whom I sent to the
hospital was actually a neighbor who lives two blocks from my house.  The
poor guy just invented some different way to tell old jokes.  Of course:
I didn't know that, because I don't go to parties.

(I suppose that this may be called "The Parable Of The Funny Albanese"...
well, now you know why was I rejected at the School of Preachers)

Pablo Massa
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