nemesis wrote:
> yes, it worked well for Lygeti in 2001.  Out of it, it just sound like lots of
> violins or voices moaning senselessly... atonal music is a dead-end...

I don't this is the case at all.  While I do agree that there is a lot 
done in modern music that seems to be "strange for the sake of being 
strange" (Cage springs to mind), I don't think that by any means all 
atonal music is like this.  In particular, Ligeti's handling of 
orchestral and choral texture seems quite adept to me, and it doesn't 
sound like a bunch of voices senselessly moaning, but rather a piece 
with definite carefully wrought structure.

I think that the biggest complaints that might be made about atonal 
music is that it's easy to get carried away with all the freedom, and 
that it is difficult to listen to until you get used to it.  I found my 
experience with atonal music to be somewhat similar to my experience 
with the taste of beer in this respect.  For a long time I thought "eww, 
that's not good at all", but after I'd tried each enough times I began 
to think "ahh, now I begin to get what other people see in this"

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