Analysis and criticism of music since 1950

Abstract

This thesis is a critical study of the music of the past decade and a half. The author assumes that this music is directed towards the general public, that the acoustical laws which governed the great music of the past still function in works of the avant-garde, and that this music, as much as any other, comes from men and may be understood by them as a reflection of the phenomenal world. This may seem vain to the academic critics for whom rules are things of the past, critics like Roger Sessions, concerned now not to evaluate, but merely to observe; it may seem foolish to the Winthrop Sargents, musical journalists who are more worried about preserving the old rules than learning some new ones; and it will seem unneccessary to those disciples of Dr. Meyer-Eppler, the statistical analysts, whose findings have little interest or meaning for the general public. But the writer contends that the academic critic who will not offer a value-judgement is deserting the public and shirking his greatest - perhaps his only - responsibility; the musical journalist who ignores contemporary music is betraying the public; and the musical statistician, whose music is symbol, structure and formula rather than sound, in neglecting the ordinary man is neglecting the one source of information which will give his researches any value.