Composition as a craft,' he says, 'is no doubt very fine. I used to be enthusiastic about it myself. This dislike for musical complication was constantly in evidence and was expressed and illustrated in a variety of ways. Monsieur Croche is, of course, extremely vehement when he touches the subject. It has taken all of the seventy-odd years since his views were expressed for a healthy reaction against total serialism, in the form of 'free atonaLity,' to manifest itself to any detectable extent.
Inspiration is treated as a dirty word by the people who never have it.
What they want is a Foolproof System for hardworking conscientious drudges. I wonder what Debussy would have thought of the strange notations for aleatory music, which uses the Laws of Chance to transform the concert-hall into a glorified gambling casino.