Chris Bonds <[log in to unmask]> writes: >All those who have abandoned tonal music for an exclusive diet of >atonal and 12-tone music, stand up and be counted! I don't think the point has ever been to 'abandon' tonal music or to have one's listening consist 'exclusively' of atonal music, even to Schoenberg or Boulez. >How many grade school kids do you know who compose atonal music? Or >sing it? When I was a little kid, I spent lots of time improvising at the piano. Sometimes I tried to play music with the style of Mozart; sometimes I tried out stuff with no tonality. I only have a few scraps of stuff that I actually wrote down, but it runs the gamut. Of course, I had been exposed to the Mikrokosmos and my grandfather's record collection; I wasn't discovering atonal music from first principles. But I didn't discover tonal music from first principles either, obviously. >I think you interest people in it AFTER they've committed to serious >musical study. When I see otherwise happening I will change my opinion >on this. I don't know whether you consider listening to a bunch of records 'serious musical study', but I've been interested in atonal music as long as I've been interested in music, basically. Dan Schmidt | http://www.dfan.org