What stopped the development of the 'free music style', as Alois Haba termed it over thirty years ago (i.e. in 1930), was not anything inherent in the music, as Schoenberg may well have imagined, but sociological and ideological factors. We have to link the revisionism in musical structure with such statements by Schoenberg as the one contained in a letter he wrote to Richard Dehmel in 1912, asking whether he would be willing to provide the text for 'a work that would fill a whole evening':

I have long wanted to write an oratorio on the following subject: modern man, having passed through materialism, socialism and anarchism, having been an atheist, but still retaining the vestiges of his ancient faith (in the form of superstition), wrestles with God (see also Strindberg's Jacob Wrestling). He finally manages to find God and become religious. He learns to pray.

In this naive quotation the need to return to theological authority is combined with the renunciation of political radicalism. But in an artist like Schoenberg such a change in attitude had to have repercussions in his music. The element of violence and rupture in the transition from the experiences of (this music) to the systematization of twelve-note technique, and the conception of religiosity as return, together with the finger wagging admonition about learning to pray, all come together not just historically, but also in terms of musical substance.

Adorno, Vers une musique informelle, p. 274, 275

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What's this you say? Sociological and ideological factors stopping the development of a 'free music style.' Is that what that really said? Really? And this has been going on for how long?

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What's this you say? A change in attitude will affect the musical substance? Is that what that really said? So if the violence and the rupture is exchanged for systematization, religiosity, and finger wagging (ahem) there will be a perceptible difference in the substance of the music? Really? Is that another way of saying "you play who you are?"

This is interesting, as it would suggest that music is a fragile thing, or at least a susceptible thing. If a change in attitude can change the substance of music, what about malnutrition or sustained prescription medicine use? How about the electromagnetic spectrum? How about sunspots? How about phases of the moon? The Mayan Calendar? Is that different? Really?

copyright,  © 2007 Stanley Zappa

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