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7. In Search for Music - part II
Wandering des canyons aux étoiles, exploring all possibilities without any exception whatever, even possibilities that threaten music's very claim to be recognised as such. Think of Schoenberg or Boulez. Now that music as a language has become able to do anything, there are not that much to do. Completely enslaved within absolute freedom - Here is what J. O. y Gasset writes on this face of our culture: "we live at a time when man believes himself fabulously capable of creation, but he does not know what to create. Lord of all things, he is not lord of himself. He feels lost amid his own abundance. With more means at its disposal, more knowledge, more technique than ever, it turns out that the world to-day goes the same way as the worst of worlds that have been; it simply drifts." 
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)His big achievement was that he understood that the Great Melody was now not only impossible, but also tasteless - and in undestanding this not to compromise all together any kind of meaning! Stravinsky honored the past of music and proposed this attitude as a safeguard against confusion. He is more original, although not more brilliant, than Schostakovich or Messiaen, in that he lets the void appear in his works. This is not Schubert's or Henry Moore's void, it's more like a hole to be stuffed - and in this, Stravinsky brings us back to Beethoven... But, what about Arvo Pärt, John Tavener, and the like? They are interesting and sometimes enjoyable, but they usually prove that romanticism is a lot more genuine and real than neo-romanticism. They lack a quality that belongs essentially to their kind of music: suffering not before, nor after, but into the music, recognising in composition the ultimate way and purpose of living. They lack commitment to estheticism... Ellopos Guide to Classical Music: Back to the Table of Contents
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