Jim Willford writes:

>As a personal example, take "De Materie" by Louis Andriessen (Nonesuch
>79367-2 1996).  I don't think I'm in a position to say, categorically,
>that this music is a failure on one or on all levels (and there are
>levels).  But I definitely am in a position to say "I don't like it."

I'm in a position to say "I don't like Brahms" (or most of him) but I'm
also bound to add the caveat "which is my loss and my problem".  In other
words, it's my opinion, but in no sense a judgement, and so I wouldn't
bother to inflict it on anybody else.

Unlike discreet Mr Willford, most listeners are only too ready to present
their opinions on contemporary composers as considered judgements, which
is why so much of the verbal souffle posted on this sort of topic fails
to rise.

We're in a marvellous position these days to study music in depth, and
so have rather less excuse than those short-sighted fools we so readily
patronise who objected to Berlioz, or Wagner, or Stravinsky.  In truth
these supreme disrupters (Andriessen is their heir) relished causing
emotional upset to their more conservative auditors.

Every age gets the kind of music it needs, and much of the response to
"modern classical music" is prompted by the potent popular image of a
Schoenbergian black hole of labyrinthine emotion.  That is certainly one
way the 20th century has chosen to perceive itself, but it does no service
to the extraordinary richness and diversity of the century's music.

The world has always been divided between hedgehogs and foxes - between
those who rely emotionally on Knowing What They Know, and those for whom
curiosity and variety are a way of life - and most of us have a paw in both
camps, even if we tend to roll up into a ball before the end.

Just because the 19th century forms are well mined certainly does not mean
that music is dead, though the prodded hedgehogs are squealing just the
same as ever.  Can't we learn from Ives, and practice to develop more foxy
ears?

Meanwhile, shock-tactician Andriessen, controversial still at 60, offers
convincing proof that music - good music of our time - is still being
composed in quantity.  Anybody interested enough might try his "De Stijl"
and "M is for Man, Music, Mozart" (Nonesuch 7559-79342-2) to test their
Current Fox Quotient.

Christopher Webber,  Blackheath, London,  UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!"