>It's time we start celebrating the LIVING composers, those who are
>chronicling OUR TIMES in their music, reflecting OUR LIVES in their
art.
The trouble with LIVING composers is that they don't write music that
the "average" concert goer wants to hear.
<sigh>. Several comments.
1) The second of these two statements is certainly not true here in
Philadelphia. Eschenbach has been programming tons of new music this
year (including a commission for Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday),
the Kimmel Ctr. is sold out, and there hasn't been a peep of complaint.
Admittedly, this all wasn't true 6 years ago, but when the Millennium
turned, the audience apparently decided that "that dreadful modern
stuff" wasn't modern anymore, and therefore wasn't dreadful either.
Happened virtually overnight, and I still haven't gotten over my
surprise, relief, and disorientation. I am quite certain this
phenomenon was not limited to Philadelphia, tho perhaps they haven't
heard yet, out in the provinces.
2) The problem with the first of the quoted statements is that great
music is not immediately diagnosable--by anyone, ever. It has to sit
out there for decades and interact with the culture before what it is
can be really known. Furthermore, the stature of any piece is to an
important extent determined by the stature of its creator (minor Mozart
gets more worshipful attention than better works by lesser composers),
and the stature of any composer cannot be fully known until
death--which in turn is why dead composers are more highly valued than
living ones. It is possible for a composer to blow it late in life, as
for example Milhaud did, so to a certain extent everything remains on
hold as long as the composer is contributing new works.
You may rail against this as unfair, but the situation is as it is. The
very concept of "masterpiece" is intimately tied to the concept of
"master," and you can't have one without the other.
Andrew Stiller
Kallisti Music Press
http://home.netcom.com/~kallisti/
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