Who Likes It Modern?

By general consent, Arthur Honegger, 59, is one of the two or three most important French composers alive. He has written five symphonies, two operas and dozens of other works. By his own admission, he finds the composition of music almost completely frustrating.

He has just published a book (I Am a Composer) in Paris. Excerpts: P: "I sincerely believe that a few years from now, music, as we know it, will have ceased to exist. . . Even today we can see what is happening. People no longer listen to 'music,' they go to watch the performance of a famous conductor or pianist." P: "The modern composer is a man who turns out a product that nobody wants. I would like to compare him to the manufacturer of old-fashioned hats, shoes and corsets, but with one little difference. The public doesn't want yesterday's hats, shoes and corsets . . . But in music, the public only wants the things that have been manufactured a hundred years ago . . . The first quality demanded of a composer is that he must be dead." P: "We all know that a man who is exposed to strong light for a certain length of time becomes blind. Our existence is a constant exposure to noise . . . The noise may be Bach's B-Minor Mass or just a bunch of accordions. The same noise, you find it in the streets, in cafes, in restaurants, even in taxicabs. Imagine a man who has heard the same Beethoven symphony maybe six times a day in this fashion. Do you expect him to go to a concert in the evening to hear it a seventh time?"

Nonetheless. Composer Honegger plans to keep on composing.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.