The problem starts at the college level. Performance majors are so busy learning the established literature that they have no time to devote to a new student work, or at least that was my experience when I studied composition at USC.
My experience was otherwise, and I have observed that priorities at various music depts. depend on which branch of the discipline (performance, composition, history, education) dominates the department. At SUNY Buffalo, where I did my graduate work, composition completely dominated the program, and there was seldom any trouble finding volunteers to play new works. Why? Because a) recitals of new music were among the most frequent performance opportunities available, b) the performance faculty were by and large sympathetic to new music, and c) any performance majors interested only in the standard repertoire would find themselves looked down upon by large numbers of other students.
I wonder how much great music is out there, existing only on paper, that no one has ever heard. Most of the music of Charles Ives comes to mind. What if those scores had never been found?
Um, they were never lost. Ives was by no means an isolated figure, and his scores were never in any danger of oblivion.
As for the larger question, I have no doubt that there is at least a significant amount of such. It all depends, though, on just where you set the bar for greatness--and that's a can of worms I'd just as soon not open.
I will say, though, that prior to the 1960s there was a huge amount of Baroque music that had never received a modern performance, and whose creators were widely thought to be minor figures unworthy of extensive revival. Among these were Telemann and Zelenka.
Andrew Stiller Kallisti Music Press http://home.netcom.com/~kallisti/
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