My favorite single piece of music is probably Alban Berg's "Lyric Suite".
It has more & more complex emotions embodied in its twists & turns than
anything else i have ever heard; & yet retains a clarity & control that is no
less than astonishing. I first heard it in Vienna in 1977. I was at a classical
concert &, if truth be told, was on the verge of nodding off after a strenuous
day of walking the city. Suddenly i sat bolt upright & my eyelids rolled open
like a cartoon character. The music had swiftly changed into something
bizarre & powerful. I looked at my program, & the next time i was in a music
shop i tracked down a record of it (not even waiting till i was back on the
other side of the Atlantic)... I have memorized portions of it by now, yet every
time i listen to it it still surprises me. The only other time i got to hear it performed
was about 15 years ago in Dallas, in the orchestrated version. Up to that point
in the concert everything had gone smoothly & uneventfully. Then the energy
level lifted dramatically, & i could tell (even from the second balcony) the musicians
were turned on by the chance to play something difficult & interesting (which in
Dallas happens maybe once in ten years, alas!). I think people who put down
twelve-tone music have either never tried to listen to this piece, or have heads of
solid wood... I became an instant convert to modern composers. Although i have
seldom heard anything quite magnificent (with the exception of certain works by
Messiaen & Penderecki), just the flavor of this music is refreshing compared with
the tired old chord sequences (in 19c symphonies i can hear the ending coming
five minutes before it happens)... --I want to write one line that sounds like that in
my head.

I have to take exception to this statement by Free Space Comix: "Also, it [Language
Poetry] never had the grip on the public imagination that, say, Beat Poetry had,
probably because it lacked any "lifestyle" element -- no costumes, no drugs --"
i always wore a costume when i read my language poetry.