Busoni controversy

Here's an interesting article:
http://cce.ufpr.br/~rem/REMv2.1/vol2.1/The_Dangerous_Issue.html
The dangerous issue of modern music in the controversy between
Busoni and Pfitzner.

Manuel

--- In tuning@y..., <manuel.op.de.coul@e...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_33299.html#33299

> Here's an interesting article:
> http://cce.ufpr.br/~rem/REMv2.1/vol2.1/The_Dangerous_Issue.html
> The dangerous issue of modern music in the controversy between
> Busoni and Pfitzner.
>
> Manuel

Thank you so much, Manuel, for this interesting link. One of my
teachers and the personal "mentor" for our composers' group was the
electronic music pioneer Otto Luening, who was one of Busoni's
students, so this discussion has a particular interest for me.

One would think that I should be on the side of the Busoni *entirely*
in his controversy with Pfitzner. Well, essentially, this is
correct, but there is a somewhat humorous caveat: I've actually
*liked* Pfitzner's music *better!*

Shameful as it may seem, I heard Busoni's _Dr. Faustus_ at the Met
(paying practically $100 for a ticket) and was disappointed. It
seemed there were few *real* musical ideas in it... lots of motion,
but nothing that stayed in the *EAR.*

And, even more unfortunately, :) I heard the _Palestrina_ of Pfitzner
a couple of years earlier also in Lincoln Center, and found it
*quite* engaging, even though in a very "conservative" mode.

I guess this indicates that there's more to *music* then the
particular materials used or the attitude or even *polemics* of the
composers.

Maybe composers should just, in general, *shut up* and stick to
writing *music*..... :)

Joseph Pehrson

I like some of Busoni's works, but find his piano
concerto uninteresting. I never heard Pfitzner's music.

Brahms was very conservative too. Yet he was Xenakis'
favourite composer, who was all but conservative!

Manuel