A composers take on atonality


The British composer Frederick Stocken has recently published a short web-essay denouncing atonality in music. He compares the avant-garde's fixation with atonality to Marxism, and roughs up the avant-garde's golden boy of the late 20th century, Pierre Boulez. See the article here:

Stocken's right on at least one thing: what's at stake in the debate is money, or, more precisely, who gets money, the atonalists or the tonalists. That's also, incidentally, what's behind much of the fervor involved in the political correctness wars on campus. Ever wonder why radical leftist professors are so adamant at supporting the academic rights of professors who happen to be or support terrorists? They're merely circling the wagons. They understand that an attack on the absurd excesses of this or that radical leftist celebrity professor threatens their own livelihoods. All this is, to be sure, rationalized as supporting the cause, but if you took the money factor out of the equation, much of the fervor would dissipate.

Posted: Wed - March 22, 2006 at 04:34 PM          

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