Much as I appreciate her posts, Jocelyn Wang startled me by writing:

>Does anyone-- anyone-- in his right mind, regardless of his view of atonal
>"music," actually believe that such an experience would have been enjoyed
>by a single one of those kids?

Who would think of bringing children to listen to Pettersson's 7th symphony
(and I have been admiring and liking Pettersson for fifteen years, which is
not so common in France)? And how did it come to general audiences? I do
not know Gawain, but I do know some other Birtwistle pieces.  From those,
and from many experiences led with children and (even "tough") contemporary
music, I can say that I do believe this "incredible" assertion.  Just as
I believe that more than a single one of those kids won't enjoy the
experience.  Now, if there are points in *this* particular opera which,
according to Mrs. Wang, makes it impossible to enjoy for children -- the
formulation itself is frightful, and I do not care a bit about PC here --,
any analysis would be welcome.

>Please.  Child abuse is rampant enough without subjecting them en masse to
>that.

And people who perpetrate genuine child abuse, like most pleas of humanity
(including racism), are so very grateful whenever they are assimilated with
people of goodwill, whose errors cannot decently be compared with such
serious crimes.  My posts demonstrate that I am not an atonal extremist,
but I find it hard to imagine to what category of child abuse a Birtwistle
attack would belong.  Sorry, but such amalgams, however striking they might
be in a public debate, generally do far more harm than they avoid.

To come back to another remark, I agree that some composers are too
exclusively supported by artificial means.  Now, is it so unnatural and
intolerable that political reasons interfere in musical education? I mean,
really political reasons, not ideological ones.

Best wishes,

Thanh-Tam Le
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