D. Stephen Heersink writes, of "atonal" music:

>Its logic escapes me, and its ability to please or entertain is always
>absent.  Whatever its merits and its continued "life," it shall always
>be marginal for most listeners.

What strikes me as odd is this syllogism:

        1.  Not many people like it.
        2.  (an implied "therefore") It's not very good.

The problem is that classical music itself is generally marginalized.  Not
many people seem to like it.  Yet, I doubt any of us would say that it's no
good.  Thus, there's either a double standard operating here, or a double
definition of "people." As far as I can tell, "people" seems to mean
"people who agree with me," in which case we are led to a not very
interesting tautology.

Steve Schwartz