378
PARTISAN REVIEW
Coppock:
I take it you had a far better idea of what you were trying
to
do when you started
Perspectives
than when you started the
Musical
Mercury.
Berger:
Oh, yes, yes. Since the demise of Minna Lederman 's admirable
periodical
Modern Music
in 1946, many of us had felt woefully
deprived of an outlet for composers to exchange ideas and keep one
another-as well as interested parties-informed of what goes on in
the realm of musical creativity.
Perspectives
was to fill that need, but
since things had changed quite radically in the fifteen or so interven–
ing years, it would do so in a very different way. Composers in large
numbers had found a hospitable place for themselves behind the ivy–
covered university walls, and were on the verge-with the widening
acceptance of the Ph.D. in composition-of becoming first-class
citizens at last. The nature of their speculations in this new environ–
ment would naturally be more technical, more inclined
to
produce
anal ytic and theoretical writing-more in the manner of
Die Reihe–
albeit from a very different point of view than
Modern Music.
A
sharply critical appraisal of
Die Reihe
made it clear in our first issue
that any resemblance to it was on the surface, while the editorial Ben
and I wrote promised to "probe as deeply as possible into fundamen–
tal issues," which meant we'd devote more space than
Modern Music
had to quite technical analyses and not have its topical coverage–
though we cou ld certainly profit today from the topical coverage at
the high level that
Modern Music
provided.
Coppock:
You speak of a new outlook shaped by the university. This
brings us back to our earlier discussion of talk
about
music. Do you
think the university's effect has been salutary? What has your own
experience been?
Berger:
As I indicated, I happen to passionately favor the talk. It is only
harmful if you let it be, if you confuse categories. But such confusion
is not a necessary condition of the academy, and as such it is
insuffi cient to cancel the advantages of being sheltered from the
assaults of mass culture to which we shou ld otherwise be exposed.
Nor should it be assumed, as it occasionally is, that providing such
shelter
IS
a charitable act of the university. Earlier we spoke of the
importance of direct experience in the arts. This is a species of
knowledge-a different kind of knowledge, a knowledge of qualities.
But as knowledge it falls within the purlieu of the academy. The
university is responsible for cu lti vating and advancing the art of
music. There is a certain awareness of this, but even when the
university wants the arts it seems to want them on its own terms.
