Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site alice.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!alice!ark From: ark@alice.UUCP (Andrew Koenig) Newsgroups: net.music.classical Subject: nearly everything written in the last 50 years is garbage Message-ID: <3064@alice.UUCP> Date: Sat, 27-Oct-84 19:04:42 EST Article-I.D.: alice.3064 Posted: Sat Oct 27 19:04:42 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 28-Oct-84 06:26:40 EST Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill Lines: 19 Theodore Sturgeon, the science-fiction writer, was once speaking at a writers' conference defending SF as literature. After his talk, he was asked why, if SF was legitimate literature, it was the case that 90 percent of all SF is garbage. His reply: "Simple. 90 percent of EVERYTHING is garbage." This goes for classical music too. The only difference between stuff written recently and stuff written more than 50 years ago is that we have had time to figure out which of the older stuff is garbage, so it is no longer played. It often takes quite a while to understand whether or not a piece of music is garbage. For instance, Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring," now well established as part of the standard repertoire, caused a full-scale riot the first time it was performed. The first time Beethoven's 5th symphony was performed, several members of the orchestra almost refused to play it ("you call those four notes a THEME? Whom are you kidding?")