ark@alice.UUCP (Andrew Koenig) (10/28/84)
Theodore Sturgeon, the science-fiction writer, was once speaking
at a writers' conference defending SF as literature. After his
talk, he was asked why, if SF was legitimate literature, it was
the case that 90 percent of all SF is garbage. His reply:
"Simple. 90 percent of EVERYTHING is garbage."
This goes for classical music too. The only difference
between stuff written recently and stuff written more than 50
years ago is that we have had time to figure out which of the older
stuff is garbage, so it is no longer played. It often takes
quite a while to understand whether or not a piece of music
is garbage. For instance, Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring,"
now well established as part of the standard repertoire,
caused a full-scale riot the first time it was performed.
The first time Beethoven's 5th symphony was performed,
several members of the orchestra almost refused to play
it ("you call those four notes a THEME? Whom are you kidding?")