Courtesy of Mixolydian Mode, this hair-raising quote from John Tavener, the “holy minimalist” composer:
I have always been drawn more to the archetypal levels of human experience and human types, which is why I think I was drawn to Stravinsky and revolted by Schoenberg. Schoenberg was for me the filthy, rotten ‘dirt dump’ of the twentieth century. I personally could not stand the angst-ridden sound of decay in his music, the vile post-Freudian world. Basically, I do not respond to the so-called ‘Germanic Tradition,’ whose by now rotting corpse — the hideous sound world of its fabricated complexity — smothers archetypal experience that I have always sought.
For more of the same, go here.