Will modernist music ever achieve popular acceptance?

Cafe Society
1

Or put more simply- Will “Pierrot Lunaire” ever be used as background music in a Bugs Bunny cartoon?

The little bit of music history I know seems to indicate the following course of events as the norm:

  1. new generation of composers begin to experiment

  2. audiences find this new music to be offensive for a variety of reasons

  3. a couple years down the road, the audience “gets” the music- they may not like all of it, but it’s no longer that “weird”, new stuff.

For example, the “second practice” that was championed by Renaissance composers such as Monteverdi- hotly contested at for a time, but for the most part it was quickly accepted.

Likewise, Wagner’s highly chromatic music seems to have found an audience. I’m amazed at how many casual classical fans consider Wagner to be a favorite composer. Granted, sometimes people condense his career into just his more tuneful pieces- but still- he’s accepted. Very few people would describe Wagner as a “weird” modern composer.

However, my university put on a performance of “Pierrot Lunaire” tonight. And in the many cases the reaction was (among music majors mind you, people training to become professional musicians) “I just don’t care much for modern classical music.”

Modern…as in 1912.

Now, I honestly don’t care if they like the music or not- that’s not the issue- what strikes me as odd is that they don’t accept it- it’s still that “weird, new stuff” despite having been around for quite some time.

And even more to the point- the new “weird” stuff that came after modernism has been mostly accepted already (minimalism for example).

So to me it seems like modernism was basically skipped over- and as such it will simply die a slow death (with perhaps a few fans trying in vain to keep it around) and then fade into obscurity. Or maybe not?

I don’t know- will modernist music ever be part of “normal,” accepted culture? Will average listeners 20 years from now talk about how much they like Mozart, Schubert and Webern? Will rich socialites impress their friends by attending performances of Cage’s music?

Any thoughts?

[mumble]Hmm…I made quite a few generalizations there, but hopefully I didn’t say anything too off-base. :smiley: [/mumble]