Recently I read a very good article regarding atonal music and why it tends to be be incomprehensible to many if not most people. You can read it here. Among other things, its very much a confirmation the wisdom of the authentic development of modern music as it has continued to be embodied in the Parisian & Russian branches of 20th century music moving forward (Ravel, Shostakovitch, Copland, Vaughan Williams, etc.). This as opposed to the 2nd Viennese School and its successors (Schoenberg, Berg, Boulez, Carter, etc.).

The basic thesis of the article and the research upon which it is based is this: The mind seeks patterns in music and takes pleasure from successfully predicting these patterns. The great music of past ages fulfilled this desire for patterns very beautifully (although by no means pandering, indeed delightfully thwarting expectations many times, only to fulfill them later). Atonal music, however, deliberately thwarts this desire for patterns and thus frustrates the brain.

This also gets me thinking about the moral and relational aspects of being a composer. That is, there is also in all of this an aspect of love and respect for the listener that the composer ought to have. So much of what I sense from Schoenberg and his descendants (both in their writings and especially in their music) is disdain for the listener, summed up in the pithy, slightly horrifying title of Babbitt’s (in)famous essay “Who cares if you listen?” (an editor’s title, admittedly, but apt for the content of the piece).

Can you imagine such a sentiment from Vaughan Williams, Barber, or even Shostakovitch? To love and respect the listener is not to pander, but to elevate and ennoble; to, with God’s help, offer something for the nourishment of the soul and, if this research is sound (pardon the pun), for the body as well, by way of the brain soothed by patterns found and enjoyed.

All this being said, the listener also needs to be more active than simply waiting to be entertained. A constant diet of pop, rock and movie music quickly leads to a dulled musical-aesthetic sensibility. The result is not really being capable of enjoying even the best tonal classical music absent a lack of constant stimulation.

Food for thought for composer and audience alike.

Brian J. Nelson - Composer