Steve Schwartz responds to Chris Mullins:

>>But I ask you - if there is a narrative to this piece, how
>>modern/contemporary is it?  Isn't narrative supposed to be a
>>middle-class narcotic, a contemporary no-no?
>
>Salonen told of the feelings that the music roused in him.  Whether
>Lutoslawski had those same feelings is another question.  If the composer
>doesn't provide a prose narrative or some verbal clue, you'll never know
>what the narrative is or even if there is a narrative at all.  Narrative
>isn't necessarily a no-no. Shostakovich certainly used programs.  Oliver
>Knussen, a very well-respected British composer, also does.  Of course,
>neither resorts to narrative all the time, any more than Mozart did.

Lutoslawski was definitely against any programmatic, let alone narrative,
elements in music.  Whatever Salonen felt, it was *only* his personal
response which had nothing to do with Lutoslawski's intentions.

-Margaret Mikulska