Richard Todd wrote:

>Steven Schwartz writes:
>
>>Why was Amy Beach self-taught, when the far less talented MacDowell
>>received German academic training?
>
>I don't know.  Given what the training produced in MacDowell, we might
>speculate that Beach was either to smart and talented to want to go through
>the often stultifying process of German academic training, or, if she did
>want to, lucky in that she couldn't.

As a non-composer and a non-musician, I'd like to ask whether any well
known composer (let's leave "greatness" out of this!) can be said to have
been a better composer for having studied at a conservatory or similar
institution?

I recall reading that the young Beethoven sought instruction from the great
Haydn (what lesser musician could have appropriate to teach young LvB?) and
that they quickly parted company because of personality clashes.  Beethoven
did then study (according to my dictionary) w/ Schenk, Albrechtsberger, and
Salieri.  I wonder what these worthies taught him.

I'm not trying to be facetious.  It's my impression that musical theory
in all its ramifications is learned in childhood by the receptive.  Either
inspiration to apply that knowledge to the composition of great music is
there or it isn't.  What more does the aspiring composer need to learn
during early adulthood in an institutional setting?

Walter M.