Satoshi Akima <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>>Talking about whether one likes or dislikes "atonal" music is rather like
>>asking if one likes modal music.  The answer should be that it depends on
>>the composition.

And Joyce Wang replies:

>Not at all.  Since the entire process of atonal composition is inconducive
>to producing anything resembling beauty, it does not take a leap to dislike
>every last one of them.

I thought that Dr.  Akima did an excellent job in reviewing the highlights
of atonal music and its accessibility.  (He might also have mentioned the
great Spanish composer Roberto Gerhard).  Ms.  Wang unhappily exhibits a
dogmatic intolerance which a bit surprising in a person who runs a concert
series.  I find some atonal music, Pierrot Lunaire, for example, rather
hard to take.  But there is a lot of atonal music which is, IMHO,
marvelous.  At the top of the list is the Berg Violin Concerto - it is near
the top of the twentieth century list as well.  But, love them both or hate
them both, I think that most listeners would agree that these are very,
very different works.  No glib snap one-size- fits- all opinion on atonal
music will do.

Bernard Chasan