Mark Landson wrote:

>Margaret wrote:
>
>>I'm very enthusiastic about 20th-C music; that's why when I see composers
>>like Kernis or Corigliano winning awards for their tepid, easy neo-tonal
>>pabulum, I'm quite appalled.  Thanks goodness Carter, Boulez, and others
>>do get some recognition as well.
>
>Do you think music needs to be atonal to be taken seriously today, or to
>not be considered "pabulum" by your standards?

For myself, the use of one technique over another does not lend credibility
to a work.  My standards are based upon the ability to present a well
thought musical statement.  For me, Corigliano's has the ability to present
a well developed musical statement, whereas I find much of the work of a
composer like Torke to be gesture with the only content being gesture.  In
many ways,I see his music as a reflection of much of what has become of the
ways in which some view the art, where the gesture is all that interests
them.

Karl