Steve Schwartz <[log in to unmask]>

>the public retreats when Carl Nielsen is on the program.  Nielsen is
>hardly as "far out" as Schoenberg or Cage.  The public retreats from the
>unfamiliar.  What do you attribute that to? Furthermore, it's been going on
>far longer than Schoenberg's birth (at least since Beethoven).  If you read
>Slonimsky's Lexicon of Musical Invective, you will come across Philip
>Hale's famous remark:  "Exit in case of Brahms." I don't really see, say,
>Luciano Berio as a pops composer, no matter how many centuries we have
>left, but I don't see why composers like this are trotted out as Exhibit A
>every time somebody wants to slam the modern movement in music.

Yes; but - despite the cliches about Brahms (& it needs to be stressed
that this exit jape had less to do with Brahms being a new composer per
se - he wasn't, at the time of the cartoon - than a composer the audiences
by & large didn't like; & that what was disliked then is the same that
critics of Herr Professor still refer to:  Brahms's distinct tendency
towards kapellmeistermusik, particularly in his major orchestral works) -
this retreat is really a recent phenomenom.  Prior to the 60s, there was
a clear sense that musicians proved their street cred by premiering new
works; but since then, the reverse has very obviously became true.  Why?
Probably because too much unsatisfying art music was dumped on the audience
in the name of newness during the sixties, turning the name of contemporary
music into a particularly pretentious brand of mud; & contemporary music
programs haven't yet regained the audience's trust.

It's downright silly to think that Hovhaness & Penderecki (however much
i personally enjoy both composers) are viewed as synonymous in the public
ear; but given the out of context garbage which was premiered at one time
under the banner of contemporary music, it's hard not to be just a little
bit sympathetic with this prejudice; & its because this anticontemporay
music prejudice has this rough guts in reality, there's no simple way to
turn it around (particularly when - even in this list - there are some
people who stick to the unfortunate equating of contemporary music with
nontraditional works).  I well remember when Gorecki 3 briefly became a
fashion accessory; & the number of people who refused to accept that this
was contemporary music because it wasn't as selfconsciously difficult as a
Paul Winkler film; & even worse:  people who should'ave known better (most
notoriously, Boulez; as well as Birtwistle in England) publicly expressed
precisely that opinion as well, reinforcing the idea the the critical elite
believe that contemporary art needs to be viewed theologically rather than
chronologically.

The case of the Sorrorful Songs tells us that the situation isn't yet
hopeless; but its pretty clear that the audience's trust will have to be
regained somehow if concert music of the classical tradition isn't to
become as dead as some of its critics claim; because recycling the old
warhorses that people can hear for free (on radio) or multiply for a fee
generally smaller than any concert ticket (ie, by buying a recording),
ain't cutting it.

Live in peace
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