Your Email:

Subject:

Message:
Entry: The Death of Music by the Spirit of Government Subsidies Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_death_of_music_from_the_spirit_of_government_subsidies#15677 Post contents: <i>Firstly, the concoction of twelve tone technique as a legitimate musical form to replace the tonal musical form... enables mediocrity as exemplified by Schoenberg to ‘compete’ in the same game, that of great composer as exemplified by Beethoven. The difficulty with it is that the human brain finds the sound of it incoherent ie not music.</i> I agree that musical rules should be based on what sounds correct to the ear, not what is correct on paper, but I strongly disagree that Schoenberg was inferior to Beethoven. I'm bored with a lot of his twelve tone music myself, but listen to <i>Verklärte Nacht</i> sometime and tell me that that was a man who didn't know what he was doing. If a composer starts off with a theme, a form, a genre, a harmonic progression, or a twelve tone row, then works outward toward beauty, I have no problem with that. The problem with the twelve tone row is that it's based on paper first, not on tried-and-true methods like genre, form, and theme. <i>There is also the myth of the inevitability or even the desirability of progress, not only in music but in the arts generally... But this is not how great art is produced: Beethoven produced many of the greatest of all works of music, not by trying to distance himself from Haydn, but simply by trying to express his personal creative vision.</i> ...through instigating progression and transformation not only of musical forms and genre, but also increasing the size of the orchestra, and demanding pianos with greater ranges and durability, as well as modifications to other instruments. Notice the difference between early music ensembles and the modern orchestra. You can thank Beethoven for making demands on the science and technology behind musical instruments, the pushing of musical genres and forms to new heights, as well as every single great and terrible artist after him making demands on the audience instead of vice versa. This is no myth, and progression in musical genres, forms, and styles is most certainly inevitable, even spontaneous. <i>The truth is that great creative ability is very rare and unless the fortunate few are provided with a coherent launch platform for their talent instead of being inhibited and sidetracked by inappropriate methodologies they will not produce anything worthwhile...</i> You can thank public schooling for this. Read John Taylor Gatto. Governmental interference in human affairs is the real issue, not atonal music. Sent at: 2008 07 24