Stirling Newberry wrote:

>Belief in numerology or its close counterparts was quite common.  One
>physicist commented that most physicists are numerologists - the believe in
>the recurance of pi,e, planck's constant and the fine structure constant
>throughout the universe.
>
>Today on NPR Micheal Greenberg made the declaration that he felt
>
>"that the 12 tone system, like communism, was one of the great failed
>experiments of the 20th century.  Both were launched witha great deal
>of optimism, but left behind no legacy."

Actually it was my remark about numerology which Deryk was quoting...

Thanks for calling attention to the absurdity of the NPR declaration.
I too disagree with such a blanket statement-although a performer and
not a composer, I condemn any suggesti0n that method matters more than
content/results are what count.

In doing so, of course, I open many cans of worms, but why not? I've been
sick of Schoenberg-bashing for more than 40 years now...

Could you imagine conservative critics circa 1650 heaping scorn on those
who misguidedly were writing "tonal" music, abandoning the richness of
"modal" music etc etc, and condemning themselves to the stereotypical
repetition of bass movement in fourths and fifths etc etc....

No comment.

Bravo--Joel