Music’s New Clothes

I suspect that these comments have been heard before from bigger voices than mine regarding that form of atonal music known as the “twelve-tone row,” but having been subjected twice in the last two weeks--first to a fortunately short piano sonata by Webern and then to a violin concerto by Berg--I submit that the best analogy for describing such music is in the story of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”

JOHN ABBOTT

Woodland Hills