I can return the accusation... Just dont assume that the Schoenberg school speak to most humans...It is ONLY your opinion that it is not a dead end ...( an interesting dead end for sure no one dispute that but a dead end )
My opinion is the same as the great Ernest Ansermet one of the great maestro, and if you dont know it author a huge book ( 1,200 pages)on the meaning and history and phenomenology of Music... " the foundation of music in human consciousness" i partake his opinion ... I studied his book and i studied the great Swiss philosopher Jean Claude Piguet, who is a disciple and collaborator of Ansermet ,was my philosophy teacher with his mammoth book , not in english translation alas! "the knowledge of the individual and the logic of realism"
Now take a referendum :
How many body-heart- humans not mere minds are moved by the Schoenberg Atonal algebra ?
You said it yourself, you like "thorny" music speaking mainly to your mind , i prefer music which speak to my body as tango or african rythms, or speak to my heart as Beethoven , and music which speak to my soul as Bach ... Better than that i look for music which spoke to my body, heart and soul and to my mind together : Indian rag music do the job or Persian modes ...Jazz too... Choral music is my main favorite music...
I appreciate music improvised by great musicians on not well known instruments in the west the most ...Way more than abstract rules of "thorny" music as serialism and other mathematical formulas using noise...
In my music listening habit i like to discover each week but i need to listen regularly my favorite pieces some hundreds of times...
Music which speak only a "thorny" abstract written language inherited from some rules as serialism and others formulas ( Xenakis for example or Stochausen or even Varese ) to my mind mainly dont seduce me much... They are "curiosities" not earth shattering experience of the spirit as a great concert of Ravi Shankar could be for me...
To each one his taste you are right on this but we express freely our opinion as such...
But when i give my opinion it is my opinion , as thorny music is your choice but for me it is a dead end most of the times... If you want to know why : read Ansermet book which is in french only alas!
«How does the musical phenomenon appear? It arises, says Ansermet, from the adequacy of the relationship of one tonal position to another, and from a rhythmic cadence. This, however, only constitutes a beginning of the musical imaging act: it is the musical cell, which only temporalizes by a passage from the beginning to the motif, which results in the taking of tonal perspective.»
Just because Schoenberg and the 12 tone method is no longer used, does not mean it was a dead end.
The history of classical music is littered with "dead ends" long before the 2nd Viennese school.
The 2nd Viennese school, has remained influential to this day. Just in ways not specifically 12 tone.
Just because you are unable to detect music that speaks to the heart from many contemporary composers, does not mean others are not able to.
You seem to have the feeling that your way of listening to music is the only way. And the only way to convey deep emotion and beauty, is to for the composer tp make it obvious.
Please don’t assume your personal prejudices are an objective fact.
You are right on this though there is some work that are very interesting here even moving ,,, I hate the idyosincrasic serialism of Boulez for example but i like Berg concerto for the memory of an angel ...But it is some of the rare exception... I said it is a dead end because not much composers revendicate anymore strict atonality as a rule or even as the main inspiration ... I prefer Scriabin spontaneous "atonal" /tonal frontier exploration with no recipe and no written rule ...
Now read me right, i consider the first and last Schoenberg as a genius... I am not completely stupid... 😊 i like Gesualdo music for example , totally and completely, but it is a dead end road as written , Monteverdi will go on a less ethereal road and i like him too at the same level ... I hope you will understand better my perspective now ...