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“What is still misunderstood about Schoenberg is that he was very much a traditionalist—because he was a radical too. He came out of the Austro-German tradition, following on from Brahms and Wagner and going back to Bach. When he taught, those were his exemplars. One way of looking at that tradition is that music is about progress, it goes forward and one thing leads to another…Based on that experience of the music of the past, Schoenberg thought, ‘Right. The next step is to do away with keys.’ It was like Neil Armstrong: one small step for Schoenberg, but a giant leap for audiences. I think that’s why Schoenberg is regarded as radical—but it’s important to know where he came from. Charles Rosen is very good at spelling this out in his little book. It’s a tiny book…just 116 pages of text.” Read more...
Andrew Ford, Musicians, Music Critics & Scholar
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