Kevin Sutton writes:

>If it is so absurd, kindly list me 10 compositions since Britten's War
>Requiem (1962) that are as significant, well constructed and original
>as said same.

Well, as a start, how about virtually everything written by George Crumb,
a composer, interestingly enough, more popular amongst audiences and
performers than he is with much of the academic community.

I think we all need to take a step back here.  The problem, as Aaron
Copland so eloquently put it, is that most composers write for two
audiences:  1) their colleagues, 2) the general concert-going public.
When Copland wrote the Sextet, he was writing *primarily* for his
colleagues; with Appalachian Spring, he was writing *primarily* for his
audience (these are both his own examples).  You could say the same about
Beethoven viz.  the Grosse Fugue (a late work) and the 9th Symphony (also
a late work).  Of course, there is a great deal of spill-over both ways,
and this kind of division is an over-simplification, but a useful one.

If I can pick up from Copland's point, the "problem" from about
1950 onwards is that most "serious" composers have been writing almost
exclusively for their colleagues, a circumstance made possible by academic
tenure.  In the cases of Copland and Beethoven, the fact that they were
writing for both constituencies influenced everything they created:
Appalachian Spring and the 9th are both as intellectually rigorous as are
the Sextet and the Grosse Fuga; also, even though the latter pieces may not
have the instant appeal (to some, perhaps) as do the former, the fact that
both composers consider their audiences is conducive to writing music that
actually communicates *something*, even if one has to work a little harder
to "get it".

Of course, talent and genius are issues here, but I hope nobody is
suggesting that the gene pool has magically been altered by ...  whatever.
I don't know the proportion of nature vs.  nurture, but one's upbringing
and education both have a profound effect on what one becomes, even if you
happen to be born with Beethoven's or Copland's genetic predisposition
towards music.

Leslie Kinton <[log in to unmask]>
Piano Faculty, The Glenn Gould Professional School,
Anagnoson and Kinton piano duo website: http://www.pianoduo.com