Juozas Rimas asks:

>Don't you think this moving-on by Schoenberg led CM to the blind alley that
>it's now resting in? I personally don't dare to listen to something after
>Shoenberg.  I'd rather listen to some Miles Davis, maybe, not the composers
>of atonal "serious music".  I know it may sound too self-assured because I
>haven't listened much but those few times were enough:/

In reply to your question, no, not really.  I don't think that CM is
currently resting in a blind alley, and although there have been blind
alleys, I don't think that Schoenberg was responsible for them.

All through the century there have been composers producing excellent
symphonic music.  They don't get as much publicity as they deserve, because
they didn't try to keep up with fashion.  Many of them have only become
known since their music appeared on CD; there are (I hope) many more still
to be discovered.  However, I'll single out a composer almost everyone has
heard of, Vaughan Williams, to illustrate my point.  IIRC, one of his early
works, the Tallis Fantasia, is roughly contemporary with Verklaerte Nacht,
as well as being at least as good.  One of VW's greatest works, the 5th
Symphony, is contemporary with late Schoenberg.  Chronologically, VW's last
four symphonies are "after Schoenberg", but they're well worth hearing and
they're not atonal.

Schoenberg's influence seems to be overrated.  IMO, it took him a long time
to find his own voice - his best music comes from the 1940s.  By that time,
AFAIK, he had no pupils and no influence.

If by "atonal serious music" you mean the modernist stuff of the
1970s, then I don't like it either, but I can't hear how it follows from
Schoenberg's experimentation.  I've probably heard more of it than you
have - in the 1970s, it was BBC policy to include this sort of stuff in the
middle of broadcast concerts.  Presumably, the idea was that if they played
it often enough, people would get used to it.  Since it doesn't improve
with repeated hearings, the plan failed.

It's a curious coincidence that you should mention Miles Davis in this
context.  I heard some of this for the first time on the radio yesterday.
I hated it.  It had everything wrong with it that is also wrong with
Birtwistle, most notably an obsession with the instruments and the peculiar
sounds that they could be forced to make.

I came across another composer the first time a few days ago, also on
the radio, when they broadcast a flute concerto by Liebermann.  I don't
know anything about him other than that he's written an attractive flute
concerto which sounds rather like Prokofiev.  Still, it's a sign that even
the BBC can find their way out of a blind alley.

Peter Varley
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