Klarinet Archive - Posting 000868.txt from 1998/01

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Music: Modern vs. 'Old'
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 01:23:54 -0500

On Tue, 20 Jan 1998, Roger Garrett wrote:

> Modern music can be defined as music of the 20th century, but what Bill
> described was really sounding like serial/12 tone music.....is this true
> Bill? Because, even the most frenetic sounding tonal 20th c.
> composition by either Copland or Stravinksy sounds tonal compared to a
> lot of the 12 tone music we hear from other composers.

There would not seem to be much point of debating about serialism, as that
has pretty much turned out to be a dead-end street. Hardly any composers
are utilizing those techniques today. Schoenberg, Webern, and others of
that tendency had a relatively small following, as compared to the
"schools" of composition engendered by Stravinsky, Bartok, Hindemith and
others. What is most important about the "New Viennese School," as they
are sometimes called, is the effect that their ideas and attitudes toward
concepts of tonality had on many other composers. In that sense, they
have turned out to be quite influential.

Ed Lacy
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Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
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