Alas, this industrialized twelve-tone horse, dull on the outside and empty inside, constantly being perfected and dragged to a new Troy in shadow of an ideological war long since fought and won by responsible minds like Schoenberg, with neither systems nor scholarship for armor!
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The twelve-tone system is criticized as hollow and ideologically driven. It continues to be refined despite being obsolete in a fought ideological war.
- In plain terms
- Twelve-tone music is criticized as empty and outdated.
- What can you take from it?
- Recognize when artistic systems persist despite losing their ideological relevance.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Is this system still relevant?
- Why do old systems persist?
Another view
Twelve-tone technique remains influential in modern classical music education.
More from Luciano Berio
Any attempt to codify musical reality into a kind of imitation grammar (I refer mainly to the efforts associated with the Twelve-Tone System) is a brand of fet…
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