Illustrated talk by Peter Stadlen
The adoption of atonality and the twelve-note system by Schoenberg and Webern was once considered by many musicians to be one of the most profound developments in twentieth-century music; but recent trends on the Continent have led to a reappraisal of this view. While the second Viennese school evolved a new approach to the technique of composition, the emergence of electronic music during the last decade has caused a reconsideration of the innermost nature of music itself.
The illustrations for this talk include recordings of both instrumental and electronic music made last year at the festivals of contemporary music at Darmstadt and Cologne.