Steve Schwartz wrote:

>Piston, of course, was an outstanding academic, the author of three
>standard textbooks (Harmony, Orchestration, and Counterpoint).  I'd be
>willing to bet that most American composers own and consult at least one
>of those texts.

I'd be inclined to agree on that front: although the qualification
American might not be necessary: even our notoriously understocked on
areas of specialist interest school library has a copy of "Orchestration"
which I have on semi-permanent loan!  I might feel somewhat guilty about
depriving others were it not that the last issue took place in May 1985 -
a shameful waste, in my opinion.

The book is particularly impressive in that nowhere therein does Piston
quote from his own music, despite being one of the deans of American
composers (of the tonal variety, at any rate!).

>However, "academic" and "boring" don't mean the same thing.

Eviva!

>Piston's music becomes less quartally-based....

....In all politeness, meaning what exactly? I hate to be ignorant, but
such words mean as little to me as "hexachord" and the other academicisms
that seem to pervade "learned" writings about Schoenberg, et al, that I
think must contribute to some of the public's general fear of atonality.

Sam Kemp