[log in to unmask] writes:

>Wes Crone writes:
>
>>I think I will become well known because I write good music.........
>
>Do you honestly think that the one follows from the other?

Perhaps Wes won't become well know in his life time, but if he truly writes
music which is valuable, then he will be remembered for it.

I don't believe there is much music from the past which is performed
which really should be.  Should contemporaries of Mozart, like Hummel
and Stamitz, really have as much recognition for what they gave as
Mozart himself? Should Zemlinsky be a household name and not Mahler?

Maybe there are many composers whose talent and perception outstrip those
who have survived from the past, but I seriously doubt it.  We have a sense
of what is valuable and, ultimately, we fight for it.  The introduction of
Mahler by, say, Bernstein was no fad - we heard the quality, the depth, the
humanity and knew how much the music meant to us.

Even if there is a 'they' who want power and influence and who stop
performances of certain music, 'they' won't be here for ever.  Nancarrow
worked in his garage for most of his life and was rarely performed.  Now he
is acknowledged as a central influence on the course of 20th-century music.
Similarly with Ives, who had to pay for most of the performances of his
work.  Schoenberg had to struggle for much of his life because of
disinterest.  What links all of these composers, though, is conviction in
the essence of what they were doing.

I believe Wes' conviction is correct and is something to be cherished.  He
shows self-belief and takes responsibility for his own success or otherwise.

Robin Newton
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