Who is The Assassin (20:45)?

Mr. Ned Rorem is a distinguished American composer, now in his 90s, who has no cause whatsoever to be referred to with the contempt that you express when describing him as "a coarse northern american man", especially when I have every reason to doubt that you are personally acquainted with him and therefore have little or no idea what kind of man he may be.

By "Stockbottle" I assume you to mean "Stockhausen". Mr Rorem's phrase "the serial killers of music" is at least amusing and the fact that you and your "we" would not express his sentiments in such words is really neither here nor there. To the extent that serial composition (including but not necessarily limited to its dodecaphonic variety) has long been recognised as just one way to go about it and that many composers have written music tht is and other music that is not hidebound to such processes and procedures in any way, it is quite clear that it may have had its time anmd place but then so have so many other approaches to composition; the fact that Boulez uttered such fatuities as he notoriously did when a young firebrand - i.e. that composers without sufficient grasp of the oimportance of serialist practice were "useless" - is now widely recognised for what it was and, given his other pronouncements around that time which frequently centred upon an apparentle fervent desire to put the past in its place, Mr Rorem's comment is understandable and hardly seems unreasonable.

Schönberg's system of composing with twelve tones equal to one another was not the only outcome of attempts in serialist directions, other having been made in the early part of last century by Skryabin, Roslavets, Hauer and others (and who knows what Liszt had in mind with his title Prélude Omnitonique?); many composers did not subscribe to any of these and, among those who did, Messiaen's foray (sorry - no pun intended!) into a form of total serialism, most especially in his Quatre études de rhythme, for piano, is perhaps notable for its remarkably short-lived nature.

One feature of dodecaphonic serialist practice was, at least in certain of its practitioners, a desire to undermine any sense of hierarchy of tones such as there had been for centuries in tonal and modal music (as though some kind of semitonal democracy) but, of course, such is possible only to the extent that one has to choose one's rows very carefully and treat them in particular ways in order to achieve this and, even then, it cannot be guaranteed - and let's not forget how Schönberg himself loathed the term "atonality".

What a lamentable expression Mr. H - they are not HIS nineties, how could they be? My use of the description "coarse" stems from what I have read in many places about his published Diaries. Since I have not myself read them I am unable to add further details. But the book I see just now is available unexpectedly freely to readers at openlibrary.org. The fellow's being a "northern american" must be mere misfortune and not a responsibility. But as regards his Christian name: if it is really "Ned" he would do well to change it to something sensible. Better late than never what: "Ned" too is certainly coarse.

The name "Ned" Mr. H. has in itself no meaning, but is a mere illiteracy that arose when unthinking children heard the expression "my Ed".

But the word has currency in Scotland, where it refers to "youths of the hooligan type - Non-Educated Delinquents - who slouch along with their elbows projecting aggressively". There is a whole page about them here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_%28Scottish%29

But I myself do not remember in the course of six months' residence in Aberdeen ever having heard the word. Perhaps its use is confined to Glasgow and places of that kind.