Dave wrote in his last post:

>The point of contention comes when grandiose claims are made by this cadre
>such as "a modern Beethoven is among us but we're too stupid/lazy to find
>him/her"

I have the feeling that you refer to one of my posts here.  If you do
I want to stress that you then (deliberately?) misquote and misunderstand
me.  My post was clearly not a "grandiose claim", just a harmless
meditation about the possibility of a new musical giant working among
us yet unrecognized by ALL of us.  I also never wrote that anyone was
"too stupid or lazy" to recognize a modern Beethoven.  Lastly I for one
do NOT belong to any "cadre".  (Next thing may be that we call the atonal
componists "seperatists" or so.  In my eyes they belong to classical music
as well as Bach does.)

For me art it free to use any means the artist thinks necessary for his
aim.  It is as simple as that.  I just don't want to limit art, that's all.
I do not care for any of Adorno's bombastic statements and I do not care
for anyone who wants to part art into "natural" and "unnatural".  What
categories next:  "sane" and "sick"? For me art loving is about freedom of
expression and a great variety of ways to understand the world.  I think it
is a fantastic thing to have so many kinds of classical music to choose
from, to have the opportunity to get into contact with so many different
ways to reflect the world.

Robert Peters
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