# Rochberg: Retro or Revolutionary?



## arnerich (Aug 19, 2016)

I have a great deal of respect for George Rochberg. Whatever sound space he composed in he commanded it. He didn't compose dissonant modern music just because it was fashionable, nor did he compose tonal neo-romantic music just to ruffle feathers. He put a light on the larger issue at work. Great music is the work of an inspired composer, not the product of a progression or an era. Composing radical music for the sake of doing something new or revolutionary is beside the point if it fails to inspire. What are your thoughts on Rochberg's music?

Below are links to portions of his wonderful Partita-Variations for piano that displays his mastery of every style from baroque to atonal. These are all variations based off the same theme.

Capriccio





Minuet 





Arabesque


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Video not available in my country.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

I first got to know his music through his quarters (No. 3 onward). I respect what he did, although, as Andrew Porter once write, "Rochberg can be a rum composer, but never an uninteresting one."


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## Magnum Miserium (Aug 15, 2016)

arnerich said:


> Composing radical music for the sake of doing something new or revolutionary is beside the point if it fails to inspire.


Well yeah, but the same goes for doing something retro.

If I want a very great retro composer, I have Stravinsky from 1922 to 1951. If I want a lovable minor composer who really likes Mahler, I have Leonard Bernstein. Rochberg evidently brings happiness into more people's lives than I ever will, so good for him, but if you want a club to beat "radical new music" you'll need something stronger.


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

arnerich said:


> I have a great deal of respect for George Rochberg. Whatever sound space he composed in he commanded it. He didn't compose dissonant modern music just because it was fashionable, nor did he compose tonal neo-romantic music just to ruffle feathers. He put a light on the larger issue at work. Great music is the work of an inspired composer, not the product of a progression or an era. Composing radical music for the sake of doing something new or revolutionary is beside the point if it fails to inspire. What are your thoughts on Rochberg's music?
> 
> Below are links to portions of his wonderful Partita-Variations for piano that displays his mastery of every style from baroque to atonal. These are all variations based off the same theme.


arnerich, I appreciate your thoughts here, and agree with what you say. I have never heard of Rochberg until now. Thanks for sharing.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

All I remember about Rochberg is that he left the Serial camp and became a neo-tonalist again, after his son died. Something about serial music not being able to express his grief and emotion. I have a 2-CD of his string quartets which I have tried to get into, but have thus far failed to see the significance. I'd rather listen to Persichetti.

He also wrote a treatise about serial music, from a listening comprehensibility standpoint. Some of it I agree with, some of it I don't, because it invalidates some go the serial music I like. The net effect of it is a criticism of serial music, from an "insider" who was once part of it.

He's sort of like the Edward Snowden of serialism.


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