Glenn Freeman <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>Kevin Sutton wrote:
>
>>I miss the days when composers wrote music, and musicians played it.
>
>Well Kevin, if you go to this week's Mappings you can listen to some music
>by composer Pauline Oliveros ...
>
>http://www.antennaradio.com/mappings/show.htm
>
>Your discussion might have greater relevance after you've actually listened
>to some of her works.

I confess to not having kept up with the list for a while.  While
I sympathize with Kevin's complaint, not all new works are of the
trivial/brain-damaged drivel described in the article he quoted.  Others
have answered his challenge to name works that measure up to the War
Requiem.  I could probably name some more that few, if anyone, on this
list ever heard of, let alone listened to, just as some have named works
with which I am unfamiliar.  Whether they (or any other work) measures up
to the War Requiem is debatable, but, yes, there is good, even great, music
still being composed, even if it might be in the great minority.

I clicked the link above, and, yes, there was a fair amount of cacophony
there, some which caused me to wince, some which caused me just to laugh.
There was also a not-bad jazz piece, and a very nice string chamber piece
called Sylvan Steps by a composer named Guy Klucevsek, of whom I had not
heard previously.  I wouldn't mind having it played in our series, which
often features one, two, and sometimes three works by living composers
in any given program.  The reaction by our audiences is usually something
like, "I was worried about the new pieces on the program, but they were
actually marvellous." Yes, the Oliveroses of the world make many listeners
understandably wary of new works, but there are gems to be found.

Jocelyn Wang
Culver Chamber Music Series
(going no-mail for a while after this post)