What is Modern Music?

Extract

The subject of modern music presents us with some of the most actual, and at the same time controversial problems with which musicians are faced to-day, actual in the sense of affecting directly the livelihood of countless composers and instrumentalists, controversial as a result of the multiplicity of conflicting opinions expressed by musicians and non-musicians alike, and the heat with which they are contested. In such circumstances the consideration of the subject by a learned society such as the Musical Association is important in the very highest degree. Only musicians who are in the habit of looking at their art in a detached and scientific way and from a historical point of view can hope to throw any light on or provide any basis for the fruitful discussion of the questions involved. The present paper is an attempt to clear away some of the difficulties in understanding the trends which can be seen to exist in the music which is usually described as modern, and to provide some objective standards of judgment, which, while not entirely beyond the influence of personal opinion, are yet not merely the individual subjective reactions of like and dislike for any particular work, which are not infrequently dignified by the name of musical criticism.