Was Stravinsky's music too academic?
This notion of my music being 'too academic' arises, I suspect, from a misunderstanding of what constitutes true musical intellect. There is an odor of the academic, yes, but this often adheres to those who merely rehash formulas. My engagement with form, with established procedures, was always a springboard for invention, not a cage. The twelve-tone system, for example, I approached with a healthy skepticism, recognizing its potential for intellectual rigor but also its tendency towards dry application. The greatest music, like that of my esteemed predecessors, is both profoundly structured and vibrantly alive.
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