Everitt Clark wrote about modern musical theoretical analyses:

>This has resulted in the musicological resuscitation of pieces which, in
>all due respect, should probably have been written off as footnotes in
>the History of Music.

Assuming, of course, that Western Classical Music is considered to be
the sum of the History of Music? And sometimes I've found footnotes in
treatises that are far more entertaining than what's in the main body of
text!

>Instead, thanks to researchers trying to get their names stapled onto
>some "major" new discovery, we're given apocryphal Haydn sonatas and a
>whole, whole lotta youthful Mozart pieces.

Well, I would agree that apocryphal Haydn isn't "The Creation", or early
Mozart symphonies aren't "Don Giovanni".  But early Mozart sure beats the
pants off of any other music I've heard written by 8-year olds, and if it
wasn't for that "useless" (my quotes) scholarship, we might not know that
the Haydn was apocryphal, or that the scores of his symphonies have been
badly bowdlerized over the years.

>I will concede they are interesting and useful to a completist, and
>sometimes our love for a particular composer overwhelms our critical
>apparati, but they hardly merit the consideration they are being given
>when so many other composers and pieces are languishing from want of
>attention.

I would tend to agree.

>...  I do wish musicologists would spend less of their time rifling
>through Vivaldi's vast oeuvre (not to reopen any fresh wounds or anything)
>and spend more time looking for those solitary masterpieces which are said
>to dot the musical landscape...although sometimes I think the phenomenon
>to the effect of "every man having one good novel in him (or symphony)" is
>a little overrated.

This assumes, of course, that one knows that nothing more of Vivaldi's work
is of sufficient quality to merit further study.  Or that one's definition
of a "masterpiece" is going to be universally accepted.  Heck, we can't
even agree on this List whether the finale to Beethoven's Ninth holds a
candle to the other three movements.....

>Yeah, so to conclude, I just wanted to confirm what Mr. Lyman wrote up
>there at the top, though I agree with Mr. Draper that there are definite
>problems in the way music is judged, most of them commercial and academic.

Or, I would propose, also related to human nature?

>Those are my thoughts.

Thanks, I found them interesting.

Bill H.