On Jan 31, 2006, at 4:13 PM, Noel Stoutenburg wrote:
a definition of "contemporary" which is close to the one you use describe, that is the sense of "contemporary classical" composer. I consider Hovhaness to be in that category, but you do not.
Not quite. He is clearly identifiable as a late-20th-c. (wh. can count as "contemporary" for the present purpose) composer because of his occasional use of indeterminacy (as for example at rehearsal 60 in the Fourth Symphony); but his basic style, conjunctly melodious and highly triadic, is way out of sync with most of his, um, contemporaries, so that he is certainly not a *characteristic* contemporary composer. So your reference to him as an exemplar was somewhat confusing.
Furthermore, if you want to use "contemporary" in its strictest sense, meaning only the absolute latest, au-courant, up-to-the-minute musical style (as of, say, Daugherty or Salonen--highly atmostpheric, often turbulent, historically self-conscious) then Hovhaness doesn't fit at all--but what would you expect from a composer born in, what, 1911?
Andrew Stiller Kallisti Music Press http://home.netcom.com/~kallisti/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
