The greatest string quartets ever composed by an American...

Agreed! ''Western Art Music

I wasn't belittling Schoenberg, I was belittling ''western art music''. Hardly has anyone ever seen the likes of such a pretentious, overblown and purposeless art..! :toothygrin:

I wasn't belittling Schoenberg, I was belittling ''western art music''. Hardly has anyone ever seen the likes of such a pretentious, overblown and purposeless art..! :toothygrin:

ANDERS! :O

I never welcomed you back. Many people leave impressions on me in this forum but none quite like you. :)

Anyway, my feelings on atonality:

Atonality is neither a regression nor evolution in music. It is simply an alternate and less conventional way of approaching music. I'll admit that I don't like a whole lot of atonal music but I think it can be appropriate and enjoyable (Alot of our forum's very own Rolifer's pieces come to mind when I think of good atonal music). I think that composers should stop caring so much about what compositional techniques they use to write music, and simply write music. It seems like alot of composers seem to forget that such things like Polymodal chromaticism, tone rows, irregular time signatures, etc. are meant to be used as tools for one to express themselves musically. A composer should use compositional techniques to write music, not have certain techniques dictate what kind of music they write. I catch myself doing the very same thing and often try to force myself into using odd time signatures and modality even when it's probably not the most musically appropriate thing to do.

So what I'm trying to say is, I think that if you find that you can express yourself better through strict 12-tone music, then go ahead. But if you're like me, and find you can only communicate the emotions you want musically through strict tonality (or at a stretch, modality) then that is what you should do. I think most of us would agree that it's easier to communicate emotion through tonal music rather than atonal. A composer writing an atonal piece simply for the sake of writing an atonal piece regardless of the emotion he wants to communicate is like a marathon runner tying his legs together and walking a mile backwards just to prove that he can. Even if you are sucsessful, what's the point?

I really agree with you, however I think the contrary is at least as often the case: People writing tonal music just for the sake of it, i.e. because it's what they know best and feel comfortable with, as it's too much trouble to look for the most appropriate way to express -your- music.

One should be aware that even though tonality is historically much more common in our culture than atonality, atonality is actually the "neutral" case, while every tonality is a specific solution. Every tonal chord and melody can exist in atonal music, but lots of atonal chords and progressions are unthinkable in one specific tonality. Tonality is a system, atonality merely the absence of this system.

I really agree with you, however I think the contrary is at least as often the case: People writing tonal music just for the sake of it, i.e. because it's what they know best and feel comfortable with, as it's too much trouble to look for the most appropriate way to express -your- music.

One should be aware that even though tonality is historically much more common in our culture than atonality, atonality is actually the "neutral" case, while every tonality is a specific solution. Every tonal chord and melody can exist in atonal music, but lots of atonal chords and progressions are unthinkable in one specific tonality. Tonality is a system, atonality merely the absence of this system.

Atonality may not be a system, but serialism/dodecaphony certainly is.

Of course, I'd never deny that.

Dvorak wrote some pretty darn good string quartets. The "American" is by no means the best though most of them are well written, challenging, and intriguing.

I think my favorite would be a one by haydn, it was in the pink panther actually with steve martin...