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Date: | Thu, 13 Jun 2002 10:42:11 -0500 |
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Kevin Sutton sets up a straw whale:
>>To suggest that there are no composers writing music for musicians to play
>>seems simply absurd.
>
>If it is so absurd, kindly list me 10 compositions since Britten's War
>Requiem (1962) that are as significant, well constructed and original as
>said same.
Kindly list for me 10 compositions since Mahler's 8th as significant,
well-constructed, etc.
The question is, of course, "significant to whom?" For what it's worth --
and without getting into comparisons with Britten's masterpiece -- here
are some pieces written since then I like a lot.
1. Yardumian: Story of Abraham
2. Walton: Variations on a Theme of Hindemith
3. Boulez: Sur incises
4. Lees: String Quartet No. 5
5. Menotti: Missa "O pulchritudo"
6. Tippett: Triple Concerto
7. Copland: Inscapes
8. Bernstein: Songfest
9. Ligeti: Piano Concerto
10. Adams: Violin Concerto
11. Tower: Piano Quartet
12. Reich: Tehillim
13. Rouse: Trombone Concerto
14. Rosner: just about Everything
15. Vercoe: Setropy
16. Thomson: Feast of Love
17. Stockhausen: Stimmung
18. Bernstein (again!): Chichester Psalms
19. Holmboe: just about anything
20. Vainberg: just about anything
21. Shostakovich: Violin Sonata, Viola Sonata
22. Pettersson: Violin Concerto No. 2
23. Rozsa: Viola Concerto
24. Schuman: On Freedom's Ground
25. Simpson: Symphony No. 9
26. Arnold: Symphony No. 9
27. B. Stevens: Symphony No. 2
28. Stravinsky: Requiem Canticles
Nothing should be inferred by the absence of certain composers from the
list (excepting Gorecki). I wasn't trying for the definitive, just a range
of styles over a span of forty years. I suspect that most of these pieces,
and some of the composers, are unknown to many of my fellow members. This
is where the problem of "significance" comes in. If a lot of people don't
know it, is it significant? If you start playing this numbers game, you
find that the most signficant music is probably Michael Jackson's or
(currently) Britney Spears's. Even the War Requiem wouldn't show up on
radar set that wide. We're much better off, I conclude, talking about
pieces we like than about something as insubstantial as significance.
Steve Schwartz
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