A Licence for Licence

Once an iconoclastic force, the avant-garde is now comfortably absorbed into modem society. These are the sentiments of English composer Professor Alexander Goehr in his fourth Reith Lecture entitled 'A Licence for Licence'.

Speaking in his series 'The Survival of the Symphony', Professor Alexander Goehr warns of the creative death such acceptance can bring. Avant-garde is supposed to be nonconformist, modern and experimental but how can it be these things when the modern listeners find it educational and acceptable?