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From: malik@delphi.DEC (Karl Malik ZK01-1/F22 1-1440)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: serialism & new-romanticism
Message-ID: <1221@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 7-Jun-84 14:14:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.1221
Posted: Thu Jun  7 14:14:00 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Jun-84 08:35:51 EDT
Organization: DEC Engineering Network
Lines: 45

Subj; Serialism Rejects Past!

Tom Statler said -

>   My main objection to the serialists/expressionists/dodecaphonists (pick your
>favorite name) is that fundamental to their music was the rejection of all that
>had come before.

  I hope no one uses this newsgroup as a means of furthering their musical
education. After having counted to 10 (12?), I can now calmly say that the
above statement is far from accurate.

  Schonberg, Berg and Webern were all thoroughly trained classical composers.
Their serial music is quite firmly based on the same old forms and techniques
that composers had been using for hundreds of years.

  They wrote in traditional forms - suites, theme and variations, concerti,
sonata form, etc. Their music is thematic, motivic, developmental, etc. I
can't see how such works could be viewed as rejecting the past.

> "As a result, their music was 'academic' in the sense that no one who had not
>studied serialist techniques could understand it."

 Whereas, your average listener has no problem with the late quartets of
Beethoven, or a sonata by Scriabin?

 For a good time, go the library and pick up a copy of Slominsky's 'A lexicon 
of musical invective' - it's a collection of reviews of classical composers.
It's filled with assertions that the music of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms etc. is 
'chaotic, unlistenable,overly-intellectual, unplayable, etc.' and that history 
will prove them right! Needless to say, it hasn't.


 Re; 'The New Romanticism' - I've seen this term covering a wide variety of
composers. Tom said that "One of the goals of the New Romantics seems to be a 
synthesis of all the free experimentation that has gone on in the first 3/4 of 
this century.". Someone, (was it you, Jeff?) posted a list of 'New Romantic'
composers recently. Can you shed any light on the subject?

								- Karl
					...decvax!decwrl!rhea!star!malik

p.s. only 3 responses to my contemporary music quiz. I'll wait another
week and then post the winners (don't be intimidated, the current 'winner'
didn't get that many right).