Stirling Newberry writes:

>Eiter you can continue to try and prove that all greatness is dead and
>gone in a futile attempt to hold the line against what you don't like -
>or you can support composers who are doing work that matches the goals you
>have for music...I happen to be one of the composers who is composing music
>which you might have use for, if you weren't so busy closing your ears and
>your eyes, and expending every bit of effort to prevent growth of music...

The above is a variation on a theme we've heard played by Stirling
Newberry quite often.  I'm afraid I don't see the system working quite
the way he claims it works.  A great number of CM fans, especially the
non-professionals, very much believe that greatness is alive, and that
much of it has a lifetime reaching back to the beginnings of CM.  To such
folks, Beethoven is not demode and a Bizet symphony is not boring.  There's
a lot of this sort of music around and a lot of people are so satisfied
with it that they don't feel a need to displace something that's already
pleasurable with something that's merely contemporary.  Then there are
others who will try something new, even welcome it as a change of pace in
concert programming, provided the dosage isn't too severe.  Contemporary
music is getting performed very widely here in Central Europe.  But whether
the preference is for the old, the the new, or the in-between, the great
majority of CM amateurs almost certainly do not spend their time "expending
every bit of effort to prevent the growth of music." To be sure, it's
likely that quite a few aren't in CM by way of aiding "the growth of
music." Why should they be? It's not their business.  Neither, however,
are they in it to conspire against struggling contemporary composers.
They're in it to listen/experience it for their own benefit.  But, above
all, there's just so much time most amateurs can devote to the enjoyment
of music, and r&d time, which is to say giving new stuff a try, will
predictably be allotted only a limited amount of attention.  So it goes.

Denis Fodor                     Internet:[log in to unmask]