prehensibility.nNow. however, we are hearing refreshingnvoices crying out “The Emperornhas no clothes.” It is revealing tonread of the reactions to the good newsnin Walter Simmons’s account in Fanfaren(June/July, 1981) of a seminar lastnspring in New York City on the statenof modern music. He relates a numbernof examples provided by the participantsn—distinguished critics and composersn—of “the coerciveness with which then’traditional wing’ of 20th century musicnhas been suppressed by the academicnmusical establishment, and the degreento which dissent has been silencednthrough subtle forms of intimidation.”nOne of the most harrowing examples isnthe critic for the Village Voice, for instance,nwho confessed that he admittednto himself his admiration for BenjaminnBritten’s music only after Rochberg hadnpublicly rehabilitated it.nFor this service alone, we shouldnthank him. But there is also Rochberg’snrecent music, an attempted renewaln”by regaining contact with the traditionnand means of the past, to re-emergenas a spiritual force with reactivatednpowers of melodic thought, rhythmicnpulse, and largescale structure.” Hisn”Quintet for Piano and String Quartet”n(1975), now available on NonesuchnRecords (N-78011), follows three yearsnafter his “Third String Quartet.” Itnis a most interesting attempt at reintegratingnthe past into our musical consciousness,nthough it may be less than antotally satisfying musical whole. Rochberg,nlike T. S. Eliot, recalls the pastnby simply including it, sometimes literally,nsometimes stylistically. In anynevent, one is often extra-musically remindednby the timemachine aspect ofnhis music that this is an exercise innreclaiming the past.nThis large “Quintet” (45:36) is laidnout symmetrically, with three movenments preceding a piano solo andnthree following. The outer movementsnare atonal; the middle movements mixntonal and atonal elements; the innern46;nChronicles of Culturenmovements are tonal, surrounding thenmurky, brooding piano solo. It is interestingnthat Rochberg characterizes thisnstructure as “a progression from darknto light, to dark again.” The “dark”nmusic is bearable, and the “light” quitendelightful, particularly the third movement,nwhich sounds like a Schubertiannromp, and the fifth, which is a lovelynaciagietto. The middle, transitional music,nespecially the sixth movement, isnfascinating: the 19th century fightingnit out with the 20th. The newcomer tonmodern music will no doubt find thisncomposition puzzling, but anyone interestednin Rochberg’s reconstructive enterprisenwill perceive beauty and stimulationnin it. The pressing and sound qualitynare good.nAt the same New York modern-musicnconference, a New York Timesnmusic critic apparently confessed to anlong-held, but hidden, admiration fornthe music of, among others, SamuelnBarber. Even during the “reign of terror,”nI doubt that the popularity of Barber’snmusic really declined. Though itnwas derided as old-fashioned and romantic,npeople apparently liked it, andnwill continue to do so precisely for thosenreasons. New “World Records (NW 309)nhas released Barber’s swan song, “ThirdnEssay for Orchestra,” Opus 47. Barber’snromanticism remained, up to the end,nundiminished. This is an opulent, luxuriant,nmelodic work. For these reasonsnit reminded me bi John Williams’snequally opulent and^quite beautiful scorenfor the movie 0racula, but, like movienmusic, I doubt if its grand gestures willnnnhave the staying power to hold one’snattention.nThe much larger work on this recordnis brash, splashy, “Concerto for Clarinetnand Orchestra” by the young composernJohn Corigliano. Corigliano is alsonknown as a romantic; however, anyonenwhose tastes do not go beyond Barbernmight have a hard time recognizing it.nBut any ear acclimated to modern musicnwill quickly recognize that the sometimes-aggressivenmodernisms in Corigliano’snmusic are on the surface, thatnhe has only orchestrally updated (withnoccasional tone clusters and dissonantneffects) what might have been heardnfrom Copland a few years ago. In fact anfew passages do strongly remind me ofnCopland’s wonderful “Clarinet Concerto.”nIf I were initiating someone intonCorigliano’s music, I think I would beginnwith either his piano or oboe concerto,nboth of which are bravura showpiecesnas well. Certainly anyone whonenjoyed those will like this virtuoso orgy.nA large part of the excitement of bothnworks on this record are due to ZubinnMehta and the New York Philharmonic,nwho play them to the hilt, and to thensuperb sound and excellent pressingnfrom New World Records.nAnother refugee from the “long termntyranny which has brought contemporarynmusic to its current state of constipationnand paralysis” is Robert Muczynskinwhose words I quote from a letternhe wrote to Fanfare in appreciationnof their report on the New York modern-musicnconference. Helping breaknthe logjam is Laurel Records, which hasnissued a disc of Muczynski’s music,n