To my claim that a recent composition in classical style would be a
forgery and inauthentic, Steve Schwartz replies:

>But that's simply a variation on knowing the composer.  Now you know the
>time period, and for you, that knowledge affects the worth of the piece.
>Implied in this, I think, is the assumption that an "imitation" is less
>worthy than "the real thing." In many cases, it probably is.  After all,
>how many composers are as good as Haydn? However, I can imagine a musician
>on the order of Elliott Carter or Carlos Chavez writing such a piece
>firmly in the Haydn-Mozart style and quite as good as most pieces by those
>composers.

I believe that it CAN be done.  My argument is that it should NOT be done.
And furthermore, I cannot imagine that a composer of stature would do such
a thing without commenting on the work in his own voice.  WHy in the world
would he want to? Another words it would be Mozart filtered through Carter.
That is a different thing indeed.  Berio and Harbison have done this with
Schubert's music.  Berio did it in a piece called " Rendering" whivh I
don't particularly like, but it is not a forgery.  I am sure that there
are a lot of other examples.

Bernard Chasan