"Krishan P Oberoi" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>A few years ago when I was an undergrad at the New England Conservatory
>in Boston, there was a composition major who insisted on handing in pieces
>written in the style of Mozart.  His submissions were consistently rejected
>by his professors on the basis that they were essentially pastiche, however
>skillfully written.  Eventually the student was forced to withdraw.  All
>of the undergrads that I spoke with at the time supported the composition
>department in their rejection of this student's work, the general consesus
>being that the role of the comp.  dept.  is to help budding composers find
>and develop their own unique voice.

How sad.  How would the professors know that the pieces he was writing were
NOT in his own unique voice? Just because they were written in particular
style? Let me guess...if this same student was a Lit Major and wrote
sonnets in the style of Shakespeare, they would get rejected? I am reminded
of the Peanuts Comic strip where Charles Schultz showed the silliness and
arbitrary nature of this type of grading in Sunday strip where Sally
receives a "C" for her abstract wire coat hanger sculpture.  I'd ask those
same questions to these professors.

Kim Patrick Clow
[log in to unmask]