D. Stephen Heersink at [log in to unmask] wrote:

>I'm not sufficiently trained or experienced enough to pontificate "atonal"
>music as an oxymoron, but I can attest to mine and great many others' total
>dislike of this "style." I don't deny that atonal compositions may be
>well-crafted, but so can many other things without necessarily reaching the
>appellation of "music." Perhaps its just crafted "noise," appreciated on
>the level of its form, order, technique, and complexity. 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.

Ohter people have commented on the marginality of "atonal" music to
listeners in general.  But then - everything is marginal in the long run.
If one compares the ocean of music that Schumann reviewed labelled symphony
- versus what became important - Schubert's 6th, 8th, 9th; four of
Mendelssohn's, 4 of Schumann's and Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique - one
would have to conclude that the works of the early 19th century Romantic
were marginal.  Loewe was an important song writer in that period, he's
seldom heard now.

There's nothing wrong with a style have a few hits that reach the public
and a great number of works only of interest to the devotee.  Beethoven's
9th is a big hit, but I doubt many people hum the melody that Beethoven
called "his finest, one that brought many a tear to my eye" from the slow
movement of a late quartet.

Another effect which is finally lessening is endemic to avant garde
movements, and not just the ones springing from the early 20th century.
That is, the people who belong to them identify themselves, in part, from
their separation from the mainstream, and act that way.  Punks dressed the
way they did as a means of separating themselves.  Many people play works
of the "New Music" in ways which emphasize the qualites which Adorno
labelled "corrosive unacceptability to the middle class".  But that does
not mean that all of the works are, definitionally, unacceptable.  It
simply requires musicians select the works which can reach out of the
core circle, and play them in a style which is meant to draw in those not
generally interested.  Gradually enough of the works of the period will be
considered acceptable, that the general public will adopt the stance of
acceptance: along the lines of - "well Berg's Lulu is lovely, and I really
like the sadness in Messiaen's quartet for the end of time - but I have to
admit I don't understand most of it." Which, after all, is really not far
from how they feel about Beethoven or Brahms.

After all The Sex Pistols begat such hair cut bands as Flock of Seagulls
and Druan Duran.

Stirling Newberry
http://www.mp3.com/ssn
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