Bang on a Can All-Stars and Thurston Moore - Stroking Piece

My comment is already so unpopular, youtube has apparently banned it. So you might as well be putting words in my mouth, as no one can see what you are talking about. If by "melodic" you are referring to atonal music, then you guessed wrong - one of my favorites, Schnittke, used plenty of it. You start by complaining about my supposed intolerance, then go on to insult everyone who disagrees with you. But I agree with you completely in that your comment is worth two cents.

Hey Hawk - OK, Well I like Schnittke too, and to me there's not such a big gulf between Babbitt & Schnittke. I don't quite get that. Not that anybody HAS to like anything for any reason, but if you like Schnittke you must have some taste in music. And if you get some of the atonal & non-melodic stuff, I don't quite understand how you would think that this piece & Babbitt were worthless . . . ???

The problem with Schoenberg's serialist works, those of Babbit and the 3rd quarer of this video is that it is simply too avant garde for my taste. I can't enjoy dissonance if that is all I hear - I need some melody to bring it into relief. I had the privilege of seeing Elliot Carter in Zankell Hall last year, with live and recorded interviews together with some pretty good performances of his music. But when they closed with 13 minutes of fundamentalist serialism, I just wanted to flee...