Karl Miller wrote:

>I don't understand your statement.  Are you suggesting that Schoenberg gave
>more thought to his composing than Beethoven did? Or are you suggesting
>that you need to leave your brain at home when attending a concert of
>Beethoven's music, and bring it along if you are listening to Schoenberg?

It's certainly true, I think, that it's quite possible to put a CD of
Beethoven on the Hi-Fi whilst performing some other activity and still
appreciate it to some extent - I will probably be iminently decried as
a philistine by various list members, but I have Verdi's Otello Act IV
playing now!  - whereas a piece of atonal music simply because it seems
so strange to us needs one's full attention for any appreciation.  Even a
relatively tonal work like Martin's "Petite Symphonie Concertante" sounds
absolutely dire as background music, to my ears at any rate, whilst being
quite reasonable alone; on the other hand, much Mozart doesn't deserve
one's full attention (In my humble, if contentious, opinion) but makes
a quite satisfactory background diversion.

Sam Kemp