Among other things, "Robert W. Shaw" wrote:

>Somehow, most Americans see classical music as being European and old.
>In a very real sense, they are right.

Nonsense.  What's worse, this perception, and its unthinking, widespread
acceptance has a lot to do with the shaky state of CM as a business, IMO.

Mind you, there _is_ a whole lot of European CM about, most of it old
(if you meant from previous centuries:  yes, of course there's been an
accretion).  But as we keep seeing on this list, there's a heap of 20th
century CM that's worth listening to, and plenty of it is Argentinian,
Mexican, Canadian, etc.

>Creating a national contribution to the genre seems to be an essential
>element in a nation appropriating CM in general.  Our contribution to music
>is a)jazz/blues and b)academic & eclectic music.  Neither of these seems to
>be particularly important to CM today.

I'm not sure what b) would be, but the USA has already made a considerable
contribution to CM.

>Sure, we have Gershwin's Piano Concerto, and sure, a few people like Milton
>Babbit, but Gershwin died early

Surely you jest...  Is this your lowdown on 20th century American CM?
There's a mountain of it out there; if you don't see it, you're just not
looking.  For 2 or 3 years now, I haven't had a lot of time for CM composed
prior to this century, but believe me, I've been very busy discovering some
of that extremely good music, and a lot of it was crafted in the 'States.

For starters, try the Sony Bernstein Century - American Masters series
of reissues, move on to the Naxos American Classics series, and then let
anything you like within those few dozen composers lead you to other works
of theirs and their kin's, both overseas and in the Americas (don't forget
that "America" stretches from Tierra del Fuego northwards).

 [PS:  Another route might be to consult Dave Lampson's addendum to James
Tobin's "Melinda Wagner" posting:  it's a list of the Pulitzer composer
winners, all from the US, since 1943.  It's a pretty impressive list in
that no more than one or two of them are as obscure as many Oscar or Grammy
winners of yesteryear.]

>As Bernstein suggested, when the musical evolves into a great art form,
>America will have arrived. But, it seems to have been mostly downhill and
>corporate after West Side Story.

I'm not sure that being made corporate is what's at the root of the malaise
afflicting CM.  (But do check out Bernstein, one of the century's top
composers, IMO.) On the contrary, the problem is how to get younger crowds
interested in it, so as to ensure a viable, marketable future for CM.

Making it more 'sexy' may well help, since the problem is partly one
of poor 'marketing,' to state it very broadly.  It might help to offer
concerts that are fun family events, or Rocky Horror-type midnight shows,
complete with makeup and whacky audience participation, as we've seen
in another MCML thread not long ago, with raffles, not requiring black
ties, playing on special themes, providing real comfort, etc.  This might
increase concert attendance and CD sales, perhaps giving the industry a
financially viable future without having to mangle the definition of CM
to include anything that requires violins.

Unfortunately, the problem goes a little deeper, IMO, and has more to do
with the anti-intellectual tenor of the times, if you will, or the view
that genuine, lasting pleasures don't require work or effort, and that CM
is some kind of antiquarian pleasure only for weirdo bookish types -- who
somehow didn't twig to this, being so lost in dusty libraries and all.

I might be wrong about this; in fact, I hope so.  But make no mistake:
although the CM industry is not doing the right things to get the word out,
there's lots of US-American, pan-American and certainly 20th century CM
'out there.' And a great deal of it is hugely enjoyable.

The really sorry thing about it is that so few people seem to know.

Happy listening,

Bert Bailey