I wrote:

>>This was actually a bit disturbing to me.  How do we travel from
>>innovative creative music designed to make us think, to the idiomatic
>>background noise of the latest blockbuster without realizing it?

Jim Tobin responded:

>There is an essay, written a few decades ago, "From Avant-garde to Kitsch,"
>by an important art critic whose name eludes me right now--maybe somebody
>can help me out on this--which addresses precisely this question.  Worth
>reading.  I'll come up with a reference eventually.

I sure hope someone comes up with this reference or wishes to comment
further on the idea.  I've been interested in the responses both on the
list and privately.  They've helped me to sharpen my thought a bit.  What
I reacted to was the way elements of Varese's conception (techniques,
sounds, "instruments") have been appropriated by the horror film genre.
So that what ends up happening is that the contemporary casual listener
is predominantly exposed to these --via the films.  S/he becomes familiar
with a distortion but never experiences the novelty or the creativity (the
richness and "spice") the elements provided to the music before they were
lifted out.  Consequently, there is the danger of being left with the worst
of both worlds:  cheap tricks in the soundtracks and an impediment to truly
hearing the work fresh if ever exposed to the music itself.

Ed