Philip Peters asks me:

>Could you elaborate a bit on Talma (sounds like a Dutch - or, rather,
>Frisian name) & Clayton? Do they achieve the same level? Of course in this
>- I mean the last - century there have come increasingly more women to the
>fore.

Louise Talma, an American, studied with Boulanger.  She's of the Samuel
Barber generation.  She's neo-classicist, with the same kind of energy as
Piston.  Laura Clayton's a composer, probably in her 50s now, who takes off
from Perle and Druckman.

Talma has a few recordings.  To me, this is some of the finest music of the
century.  Clayton has none, so far as I know.  I've encountered her work
only in live performance.

Steve Schwartz