Schoenberg and other musical avant-gardistes wanted to destroy the beauty of music, which they considered "bourgeois," and hence "save" the music of the future from philistine notions such as beauty.
The bourgeois have had the good sense to avoid the cacaphony ever since. Nonetheless, while I prefer Don Giovanni, I can certainly enjoy a production of Lulu. Or a Bartok concerto. Or Peter Grimes. And even a bit of Ligeti, who's not half bad sometimes. It's just that I wouldn't want a steady diet of it, and it won't replace Bach and Haydn, which I suspect some of these 20th century fanatics, like Ross, would prefer.
I didn’t even know people still composed classical music today.
Ping.
Because it isn’t music in any traditional sense — it’s noise, and nobody had the guts to tell the composers that.
Don’t even get me started on 4’33”.
Schoenberg’s best music is beautiful. He was taking the next logical step from Wagner and Mahler.
Bad music is bad music regardless of style (except hip hop which is always bad).
Because it sounds like a gaggle of cats getting tossed into a wood chipper?
“Modern classical music” is an oxymoron. Classical music has withstood the test of time. The avant-garde crap being peddled today as “modern music” won’t last past next leap year.
“It’s not music. It’s frantic, frantic noise.”
Most likely because nobody would know what you're talking about.
This isn't a dinner-party, but Pollock is a crock.
To quote Mr Anonymous, “I’m no art critic, but I know what I like.”
I actually like a lot of the “classical” music written for movies. Silvestry, Williams, etc. I really enjoyed the theme from “The Last Starfighter”.
I used to play in the Boeing orchestra (OK guys, STOP laughing!) and my teacher really had no respect for Williams. She felt he went for the low hanging popular fruit of lots of triplets. It IS all over the place in the theme to Superman.
Many composers of old produced music for the opera and on consignment. Their modern equivalent would be producing music for movies and television.
The article only makes sense if you stick an icepick through your head before reading it.
Most film scores ar classical music. Many of them are very good and quite popular. This fact eviscerates the thrust of the article.
Classical Music Ping
Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps, the Firebird, etc.
Modern? Cacophonous? Quite.
Classical? Of course.
Because it’s usually an expression of the composer’s narcissism, it’s yawningly predictable, and it’s unpleasant to listen to.
Because much of it is neither "classical" nor music.
Try The Night of the Mayans by a contemporary Mexican composer.
I have always suspected that modern composers, knowing that they could never approach the level of the old masters, decided to go in the opposite direction. As a result, their works sound like chimps banging on a keyboard.