Re: GG: Atonalism

[Robert Clements <clemensr@mailhost.world.net>]

Kristen Immoor wrote:
> 
> Hi gang,
>     One last question before we leave that old Mozart thread behind. A
> point was raised that perhaps Gould championed the more "alternative"
> composers because there was less tradition at stake and therefore less
> reputation to live up to. It was the less competitive route. It could be
> inferred from this that composers like Berg or Schoenberg, indeed the
> entire minimalist or atonalist school, provided a wide field of "throwaway
> pieces" that Gould believed he could raise to high art. Were the works of
> these composers low art to begin with? Schoenberg especially is a hot topic
> on the classical newsgroups, no one can seem to decide if he was a freak
> occurrence in the world of music whose compositions were at best a novelty,
> or if he was an unsung genius who is vastly underrated and deserves more
> respect. There can be little question that atonalism never really "caught
> on" as a style of western music, and I wonder what it was exactly that
> Gould found so fascinating in the style. Was GG just being perverse when he
> said that Schoenberg would be revered as the greatest composer of the
> century?

I suspect partly; but GG certainly had a _taste_ here (word meant literally; & 
not intended to suggest that people should or shouldn't agree with him). It's 
worth listening to the Casals radio documentary in this context... one of GG's 
continuing criticisms of Senor Pau is that he isn't playing enough new music; & 
is too content on replaying the old classics.

Actually Casals may have premiered more new works than GG did (one particularly 
mighty example - totally unknown now - is the Tovey Cello Concerto)... the 
difference being that the composers GG tended to consider new were those he 
thought we advancing art (this is even true of Richard Strauss, his most peculiar 
obsession); whereas Casal's _faves_ were justing writing fun music....

(This obsession with the _new_ may have been a factor in GG's dislike of Mozart, 
by the way; but perverseness was probably also important)

Disappearing quietly into lurkerdom again....

All the best,


Robert Clements <clemensr@mailhost.world.net>
<http://www.ausnet.net.au/~clemensr/welcome.htm>