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. . . The confusion
lies . . . in a tendency, not entirely
new to our time, but very much exacerbated during the last decades, to
seek musical criteria outside the realm of music itself. The error lies
first of all in the propensity, again not in itself peculiar to our time,
for approaching the whole question of criteria from the wrong end—that
is, by applying to it, from the outside, as it were, predetermined standards,
whether derived from a fixed conception of tradition, or of historical
necessity (music history, of course), or of theoretical or aesthetic dogma.
Second, the error lies in the practice, all too characteristic of our time,
of applying to music criteria which have no connection, other than at best
a purely speculative or fortuitous one, with music as such. Under this
heading I would put matters ranging all the way from political, social,
and even economic dogma to the infusion of musical theory, analysis, and
finally critical judgment with elements drawn from physical science, mathematics,
or even certain far-flung regions of philosophy.
Roger Sessions
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