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Date: | Thu, 15 Apr 1999 20:57:24 -0400 |
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Bill writes:
>I must blandly admit that after almost 60 years "dabbling" in CM, I had
>Never heard of the Pulitzer for Music until a Month ago!?*
Since various people are talking about levels of obscurity and how it
doesn't seem obscure *to them* I will counter that this is a list of
enthusiasts, with a goodly proportion of the list members being, how should
I say it - collectors of recordings. That what is being written and given
prizes to is not obscure *to some of them* is really no more of a measure
of the health of the prize, than say, the Grammy awards having recognisable
names in the music industry. I am sure that if I were to rattle of the ten
best selling rap albums for the last year as measured by sound scan, a
group of rap fans would know them all and have strong opinions on most
of them.
However, the question is "hwo much impact have these composers had on the
outside world?" Compared to the names *not* on the list - The names on the
list seem - well slight. Again I will point out the significant omissions
- Ellington, Coltrane, Davis and Mingus. I will happily take Mingus as a
composer over Hanson almost any day of the week, Ellington over Martino,
Coltrane over Menotti. And I'm primarily a classical music fan. It is
like looking at a list of the Kapellmiesters in German music history. Its
true that Eybler, Spohr, Salieri, etc. are not completely obscure. But
they are somewhat overshadowed in history by a list of names that did not
reach this level of honor - Mozart, Weber, Beethoven, Wagner.
Stirling S Newberry
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