Schoenberg, As Explained By Bernstein

There seems to be an ongoing curiosity about the viabilithy of twelve tone music these days. Several threads right here on YC. I was never a subscriber of it, though it was big with my teachers. Bernstein

says the didactic Scheonberg was at odds with the pragmatic Schoenberg, meaning that the romantic Schoenberg (the real Schoenberg) saw the inherent flaws with his own design. The democratization of the twelve notes was his goal, and imo designed to undercut the ego of the composer (not unlike minimalism), to make him/her subservient to a system. But as Bernstein says, Schoenberg worked very hard to introduce the very ego he sought in paper, to eliminate. The devil is in the details, as Bernstein will demonstrate to you in his usual persuasion. Please see all of these videos on youtube.

http://youtu.be/olwVvbWd-tg