Jeff Dunn:

>Or maybe we should give up and do what we do best, movie
>scores, rock and rap.

What do you mean "we"?  Jeff Dunn can give up (I had not realized that
he has been writing music) but it is clear that lot's of composers are
not of the same mind.  There is certainly no lack of excellent American
composers, many of them on the list which Jeff presented.  Others, like
Elliot Carter and Conlon Nancarrow, don't do symphonies- they surely
have little in common otherwise.  Barber did not make the symphony list,
but he makes it on the operas, the songs, and the Violin Concerto.

Bernard Chasan