Minimalism Debate

Who says atonality is dead? It’s just reared its head in Philip Glass’ minimalist brain, but Glass is too flip to recognize the populist craving for 12-tone arpeggios.

At least, that’s the impression one gets from Perlmutter’s interviews with composers Charles Wuorinen, John Adams, George Perle and David del Tredici, who lay the blame on Arnold Schoenberg, for the fall of music as Beethoven understood it.

I guess one thing really needed in music is humor, and perhaps, at last, minimalism has answered our prayers. Million-dollar commissions for Steve Reich--that is funny.

FRANK L. BURKE

Los Angeles