the birth of modern music

[jw@math.mit.edu]

Did "modern musical history" begin in nineteen-seventy-seven (TKI) or
nineteen-sixty-five (GDead)?
Are you serious? It began in EIGHTEEN-sixty-five (T&I)!

Does anyone doubt that Wagner's music was a direct translation of
his musical ideas into orchestration in exactly the same way that
some have been arguing Kate's music translates her thoughts into
studio production? While I agree that the step from letting
the music be dictated by the capabilities of the instruments to
giving free range to the composer's imagination is a breakthrough
of the first magnitude, the induced separation between "pre-modern"
and "modern" music occurs with the first bar of Tristan und Isolde.

                                  Julian