Linda Phillips wrote:

>When I look at a list of English composers, I just don't see this kind of
>genius and diversity.  Certainly Britten ranks the best of them, and I'll
>even grant you Vaughn Williams (although, having just listened to the "Sea
>Symphony, I'm having doubts) But Rubbra?  Simpson?  Maw? (he's English,
>isn't he?) Torke, and the whole Argo gang?

I have to say, I agree, but I'm probably biased, being American.
I remember looking at a score of Copland's "Fanfare for the Common
Man" and thinking that it just *looked* big.  Even the spacing of the
instrumentation and the sonoroties looked very spacious, and it got me to
thinking about the very American quality of spaciousness.  Even the printed
manuscript seemed to speak directly to my very American sense of overblown
grandeur:-) We are a people acquainted with roominess, much more so than
our British counterparts; it's just a product of our national landscape,
and perhaps it's the reason why we insist on having the biggest of
everything (which is not, of course, necessarily a good thing).  The open
fifths and intervalic leaps are among the elements that make Copland's
music so evocative of open spaces, and thus so quintessentially "American".
But, alas, I spew cliches.  Torke is from Wisconsin, and he is my guilty
pleasure of the moment.  Does anyone else dig his stuff, or is it just
because I grew up listening to Van Halen?

Krishan Oberoi
Providence,  USA