tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17709835.post8149555619436013349..comments2024-01-17T00:20:07.761-08:00Comments on Not For Fun Only: Who Killed Classical Music?Axel Feldheimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12517904558156089265noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17709835.post-61079078477993405672014-02-09T23:55:01.668-08:002014-02-09T23:55:01.668-08:00David: I'd definitely argue that Berg's mu...David: I'd definitely argue that Berg's music works so well because, though he uses serial techniques, he cheats a lot. SF Opera has fine productions of Wozzeck & Lulu, but I don't think I've ever been within 400 miles of a performance of Moses & Aaron.<br /><br />Interestingly, the radio program makes no mention of Stravinsky. Perhaps he doesn't fit within the political framework of the show's thesis. (Though I've seen audience members walk out of performances of The Rite of Spring as well.)Axel Feldheimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12517904558156089265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17709835.post-69733710616974783592014-02-06T21:17:52.093-08:002014-02-06T21:17:52.093-08:00Well, I don't think that serialism or atonalit...Well, I don't think that serialism or atonality are the villains here; after all, Berg's Lulu and Wozzeck are not only admired by other musical eggheads, but deeply loved by the public. (I acknowledge that Berg used tone rows in a less formally strict way than Schoenberg and Webern, but he did use them.)<br /> <br />As to Stravinsky, he did indeed rail against serialism--only to become a convert himself during the last dozen or so years of his composing life! But, like Berg and Webern, not in the strictest Schoenbergian sense: listen especially to his Requiem Canticles, Agon, and Canticum Sacrum.David Lassonhttp://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-lasson/36/405/827/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17709835.post-78084635534352984182014-02-05T11:41:59.828-08:002014-02-05T11:41:59.828-08:00I summarized probably 5 minutes of a half hour pro...I summarized probably 5 minutes of a half hour program, so to be fair, the show does discuss Britten, Shostakovich & Prokofiev as composers who remained connected to a wider audience, for instance. (Also, they are from anti-Fascist countries during WW II.) But I think it's still valid to say that serialism & its extreme descendents have been a failure with audiences. By ending the program with Tansy Davies, a composer who combines classical & rock, I think the program was actually saying classical music is still very vital.Axel Feldheimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12517904558156089265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17709835.post-110553136063063352014-02-05T10:51:51.031-08:002014-02-05T10:51:51.031-08:00And yet you had people like Stravinsky (virtually)...And yet you had people like Stravinsky (virtually) rejecting serial composition and embracing "neoclassicism" after WWII as a response to extreme modernism. And then there were 20th C composers like Britten who's #1 guiding principal was that his music be understood and accepted by the masses. I'm really tired of people proclaiming "classical" music dead and then offering up flimsy explanations to support this argument. It's become the dog pile du jour. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03213240385405951546noreply@blogger.com