Arnold Schoenberg might not figure so high in the media stakes. His brand of ("classical"?) modernist music is, of all the modernisms , the most eli ti st and remote f rom the feelings of contemporary society. What does the "a-tonal" style or the "serial" system of composition mean to us? Most of us are happier with less cerebral forms of music that we can still identify as modern.

Is George Gershwin (1898-1937) modern? Is Charlie Chaplin (18991977) modernist? We risk confusing modernism with mainstream fashions .

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