Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 (Tek) 9/26/83; site tekecs.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!tektronix!orca!tekecs!jeffw
From: jeffw@tekecs.UUCP (Jeff Winslow)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: Why contemporary music is not popular
Message-ID: <3978@tekecs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 15-Aug-84 11:50:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekecs.3978
Posted: Wed Aug 15 11:50:41 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Aug-84 01:20:50 EDT
References: <197@olivej.UUCP>
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 35

After reading Greg's thoughtful and interesting article, I want to
expand on one thing he said and add another observation.

I also have heard it said many times that more education or intellect is
required to appreciate modern music (especially that which uses serialist
structures) than earlier music. I don't believe it, and I agree it would
say bad things about that music if it were true.

But this music *does* sound *much* different than most of the musical sounds
most people hear when they're growing up. In particular, dissonance of the sort
found in, say Pierrot Lunaire seems to be an acquired taste for most people.
So what? So's whiskey, and it's immensely popular. (Of course, there are no
social pressures to listen to Pierrot Lunaire.) Anyway, I believe this
dissonance and general strangeness (ie, unfamiliarity with the vocabulary) is
mainly what is responsible for the lack of popularity of modern music.

The only way for the individual to overcome this is just to listen to all of
it he can find, without prejudgement. Even if it sounds awful at first.
I guess I'm lucky, in that there was social pressure on me, both in school
and at home, to listen to it (you thought I was joking about social pressure,
weren't you?). Another thing which might help is to read what Schoenberg
wrote about his own and others' music (and he wrote a lot - painted too).
I came away convinced that this guy knew what he was talking about (ie,
I agreed with what he wrote) - that provided a kind of intellectual pressure
for me. And once you can make the transition to appreciating this music, you
shouldn't have too much trouble extending that appreciation to more truly
modern work.

Then again, I have met people who seemed to have an instinctive liking for
it. Earle Brown claimed that when he first started improvising on the piano,
it came out sounding like "middle Schoenberg". I realize that this is hardly
modern, but it is a good example of the kind of dissonance I'm talking about.

                                    12 days in a week, right?
					Jeff Winslow