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Fair question

Posted by Chris from Lafayette (A) on July 24, 2016 at 19:52:53

In Reply to: Chris, why do you so hate anything past Rachmaninoff? posted by oldmkvi on July 24, 2016 at 19:07:52:

I feel that, aside from composers like Rodrigo, most modern composers since the end of WWII are writing music that is, at worst, driving away the mainstream classical audience, and, at best, giving this same audience a mediocre musical experience, whose highest attainment seems to be that the majority of its listeners will consider it "not bad". That seems to be the best they can do!

We're assured by critics entrenched in positions where their writing seems to get wide circulation that practically any new music may have an appeal for younger audience members. But the trouble with that statement is that I for one have been hearing the same crap ever since the 60's, and the composers that the critics of that time were pimping as the great hope of classical music continuity and, dare I say it, "greatness", somehow didn't live up to the critics' hype! Indeed, where are the works of the likes of Charles Wuorinen or Andrew Imbrie today? (My wife had Imbrie as a teacher at UC Berkeley - she said he was a really nice guy. My response was that it's a lot easier to be a nice guy when you've got your cushy academic appointment at a major university and your SF Opera commission, etc.)

I don't deny that the music I'm talking about here does have its audience. And if somebody says (like you did), "I like the music of Thomas Ades", I don't have a problem with that (even as I find it mystifying - and I do try to poke fun at it when I can!). But what I resent are these overblown critical assessments (as in the OP's linked article) which would have us believe that Wuorinen (or Ades, or Lindberg, et al.) are the ultimate in composing, comparable (or even superior!) to the well-known composers of the past. Such assessments weren't true in the 60's and they aren't true today.

Having said all this, there are some composers living today (such as Arvo Part) who have written some music that I'm genuinely enthusiastic about.

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