Stephen Heersink replied to me:

>I cannot answer Mr. Breiling's question put to Mrs. Wang.  And I confess
>I am not certain of the question, but at the core, it asks, What I expect
>contemporary composers to compose?

I am sorry if my poor English did not make it clear enough, but this was
exactly my question!

I thank Mr. Heresink for explaining his point of view, which I dare to
summ up with the sentence (talking about works he heard at a concert he
disliked a lot):

>At best they are "ordered" sounds, but not ordinarily what one calls "music."

You seem to imply that *one* knows perfectly what is music and what is not,
that there is a general notion about what is normal in music (or art) and
what is abnormal to which everybody agrees.  But this is not the case!  As
I wrote priviously it depends on your personal definition of what is music
and atonal composition fits very well with mine and apparently I am not
allone.  Last year I attended a concert by the Ensemble Modern here in
Milan, Peter Eoetvoes conducting.  They played works by Kurtag, Webern and
Eotvoes.  They got standing ovations and the hall was packed!  There seem
to be at least some 500 people here in Milan who more or less agree with my
definition of music!

Achim Breiling