Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site decwrl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!decwrl!asente From: asente@decwrl.UUCP (Paul Asente) Newsgroups: net.music.classical Subject: Re: Modern Classical Music Message-ID: <947@decwrl.UUCP> Date: Fri, 1-Jun-84 15:21:49 EDT Article-I.D.: decwrl.947 Posted: Fri Jun 1 15:21:49 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 5-Jun-84 08:03:46 EDT References: <386@ihu1g.UUCP>, <50@mouton.UUCP> Organization: DEC Western Research Lab, Los Altos, CA Lines: 39 Perhaps one of the reasons many people dislike "modern classical music" is that there hasn't been time yet to weed out what is good from what is just mediocre. Yes, even Mozart and Beethoven wrote music that wasn't great. Have you ever heard Beethoven's Symphony #2? There's nothing wrong with it, it just isn't great. Beethoven's opera "Fidelio" would probably be forgotten if anyone else had written it. Every one in a while we get treated to some long-lost piece by some famous composer and, surprise, it's DULL. (Not always, of course, but sometimes.) Also, most older pieces have either had a chance to be revised and improved by the composer later in his life or come from the composer's older days. For some reason I think that the most interesting modern work being done is being written for voice or chorus. Steve Reich's recent "Tehillim" (Psalms) is very worth looking into; I have always liked Steve Reich but this piece absolutely blew me away when I heard it live 3 years ago. Also check out John Adams' "Harmonium" (due out on Phillips anytime now recorded by the SF Symphony.) This is settings of three poems by John Donne and Emily Dickenson for chorus and large orchestra. Not choral but really good if you can find it is "Windows" by Jacob Druckman. This won the Pulitzer Prize for music when it first came out. The main idea is that there is a "wall of sound"; occasionally you come to "windows" in the wall and hear little snatches of music in various recognisable styles, then you move on to the next window. The little snatches all are almost recognisable; they all seem to tug at your "I know that!" feeling, but they were all acutally written by Druckman himself. This record is very hard to find (I've been trying for years). In short, don't give modern music the complete write-off. There's a lot of dreck out there but there are some diamonds, too. The only difference between now and 150 years ago is that the trash then was quiet and boring; now it's loud and boring. -paul asente (decvax, ucbvax, ihnp4...)!decwrl!asente "It is easier to fight for your principles than to live up to them."