How did Alberti bass become the the main ingredient of a certain style of contemporary composition and what I call sometimes “wallpaper music”? In fact, wallpaper can be rather attractive and I enjoying the look and the feel of the newly wallpapered hallways in our condo building. In a few days it will become just a visual filler and nobody will notice the difference between the old wall-cover and the new one.

The genius of pattern repetition in music is that it is possible to produce large rolls of it to fill clock-time. And  the music is widely interchangeable within itself and when it accompanies visual or dramatic media. It is a kind of “Neo-Baroque”. Composers like Handel thrived on it and could produce a new opera in a few days of work.

Next to me, in my small CD collection I have a box the Complete Works of Anton Webern recorded on three CDs. And the Complete Works of Edgard  Varése on two CDs. These two were just lazy bums!.