The code of honor in great art

“In higher art, only that is worth being presented which has never before been presented.  There is no great work of art which does not convey a new message to humanity; there is no great artist who fails in this respect.  This is the code of honor of all the great art, and consequently in all great works of the great we will find that newness which never perishes, whether it be of Josquin des Prés, of Bach or Haydn, or of any other great master.”

– Arnold Schoenberg

“New Music, Outmoded Music, Style and Idea”, Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg (ed. Leonard Stein; trans. Leo Black).  London: Faber and Faber, 1975.  p.114-15.  Cited in: Burkholder, Grout & Palisca (2006) A History of Western Music.  New York: Norton, p. 804.

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