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Date: | Mon, 14 Jul 2003 10:43:37 -0400 |
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Alan Dudley remarks that, before the advent of audio recording,
>a composer had to make his music enjoyable at first hearing.
I don't think that accurately portrays the composers of yesteryear.
Beethoven must have known how jarring the dissonances in his late string
quartets would have been to the sensibilities of his audience. In his day,
and for two generations thereafter, my impression is people thought LvB went
off the deep end with his opus 133 (the fugue movement of string quartet
#13, which was published separately from the rest of the quartet). I imagine
that Reger knew he was difficult to listen to (I'm not sure he's any easier
100 years later), but simply enjoyed playing with aural complexity. Moreover,
Shoenberg developed his twelve tone row system at a time when he could scarely
have imagined that recordings would have become as ubiquitous as they are
today.
At least since the Romantic Era, some composers have savored pushing the
envelop. I suspect the fact that musical composition has moved from service
to polite society to academe has more to do with music becoming a challenge
to listen to than does the advent of recording. That's not to say that the
affect Alan ascribes to recordings has no affect, but I question whether or
not it's the predominate one.
Larry Sherwood
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