Serial Approaches in Electronic
Music
3 criticisms for the music
being “unmusical”
1) the music is emotionless and
non-creative
2) it represents non-musical game playing due to its mathematical, mechanistic
nature
3) it cannot be distinguished from random processes
"Analysis Today"- Cone
• finds both approaches [ie, European, Babbitt] lacking
• musical events aren’t linked organically with those that
precede, follow
• refers to an external structure: one by laws of chance,
the other a predetermined plan; connections are mechanistic
• this music is composed prescriptively; events there only
because they have to be