Letter from Italy

Abstract

THE assessment of important musical works is less the concern of the chronicler than is the recording of the conventions of a time, those devices that have made their way into the wide band of all who write music at a given period. Such a varied cross-section as was presented at the 25th International Festival of Contemporary Music sponsored by the Biennale of Venice reveals for the chronicler the status quo of music in Western Europe at this time. And it is not too much to say that the works of almost all concerned, from the established figures of the older generation to those young talents just emerging, take their outward garb, though not their point of initiation, from the world wrought by Webern. It is perhaps beside the point to ask what Webern himself would have thought of all of this, for his concerns were far different from those of today's composers who use the kind of musical appearance that he initiated. We know from Webern's familiars that he was most