“Classical Music” as Noise
May 30, 2017
A COMMMENTER at Tradition in Action writes:
[Composer Arnold] Schoenberg decided to take the hierarchy and harmony in music and completely trash it by creating a new musical system called atonality. In this system, music has no center of pitch, as it did for hundreds, even thousands of years. He does away with the beauty of traditional tonality and prefers his egalitarian clusters of noise.
This atonality opened the floodgates to all kinds of progressivist movements in music. We see this progressivism starting with Stravinsky, then with Boulez, Stockhausen, Steve Reich, John Cage and, more recently, with Thomas Ades. We have to refrain from calling this “music” – it can only be considered a type of organized noise.
The world’s greatest concert halls, which once uplifted the soul with beautiful music, often features this modern noise. It is a type of aural chaos that causes a great deal of anxiety and unrest in our own souls. Don’t take my word for it, though, just take a listen to the atonal music of Schoenberg. It’s awful.
Unfortunately, some of the only modern tonal classical music we find are in films, like those that have been scored by John Williams. Too often those films with great musical scores are no good, either, and use beautiful music to entice the watcher to embrace bad customs and immorality. (think of the music of Harry Potter, the Godfather, etc.)
In the revolutionary dominant musical circles, atonal classical music is seen as “serious” music, that is, music that does away with the “silly” traditions of the past and moves on to “bigger” and “better things.” Refusing to play this ugly modern music or even expressing a public aversion to it can mean the end of careers for some.
Despite all this, I truly believe we must stay away from modern classical music that negates tradition, faith and morals, especially atonal music.
