Aaron Rabushka wrote:

>I went to school with an astounding number of aspiring musicians who wanted
>to be clones of their teachers.  I never understood that.

In a taped interview Varese described his experience studying with d'Indy.
Varese said he was, "a horrible pedant who wanted to turn all of his
students into little d'Indys."

Some of the thinking can be explained by the notion that it is only as we
grow older that we can develope our own ability to discriminate.  Part of
the growing process is to emulate what has gone before.  The sad part is
that many of us don't develope that much past our formative years.  We are
"slaves to fashion," etc.

I have often wondered about music education in general.  The basic
study program in music includes two years of harmony, at least a semester
of counterpoint, forms and analysis, etc.  Yet the bulk of the music
studied was written over 100 years ago.  From my perspective, much of
the fundamental structure of the music curriculum reinforces the notion
of cloning.

Karl