I suspect the whole motivation behind writing of the "most overrated
composers"- after all, did they list who had the "ugliest girlfriend"
in your high school yearbook? They didn't in mine.

However, I guess I can't resist jumping in on this one.  Many of you will
be disconcerted by my list, but hopefully some will find it illuminating.
I'm entitled to my opinion, and that is certainly all you that will find
below.  However, I've decided to add a list of five underrated composers to
the end- an enterprise far more constructive than the foregoing.  Hopefully
some you will take up the thread, as I'd be interested in hearing about
which composers you like that I don't know.

 JOHN WILLIAMS

You folks are going to have me over a barrel for this one, but I no
longer work in Hollywood, so I can say it out loud:  (cups hands to mouth)
"John Williams is the most over rated composer in the world." Ahh, that
feels better.  If it weren't for the megahit blockbuster movies which he
scores, Williams' penchant for too-simple melody and paint-by-number
orchestration would've gotten him no farther than that of band director for
a local high school.  He has done nothing in thirty years to live up to his
early promise as a big band jazz arranger adn has never written a note of
original music which has stirred my emotions on it's own account.  When I
have to sit through the typical medley of Williams' hits at the Summer Pops
Concerts I have to grit my teeth and bear it.  Usually I get through it
okay, but did he really require the services of Itzhak Perlman to play the
theme to "Schindler's List"? Seems to me he could've used a Suzuki violin
student and done as well, and he might not have even needed a very good
one.

PIERRE BOULEZ

A fine conductor, true, but WHAT a composer!  His dense, hyper-hyper
agitated and heavily overworked scores is to me the very antithesis of
musical enjoyment.  It's like fifteen cups of coffee on top of five black
mollies and a christmas tree.  I'm sorry; Country Music is better if you're
going to drive a truck for 36 hours, and that's the extent of effort I have
to put out when I listen to Boulez.  I'm not a lazy listener, but you've
got to draw the line somewhere.

PHILIP GLASS

While there are certainly some tasty meals to be savored in Glass' kitchen,
a fair amount of the dishes come up a tad half-baked.  In a way it's not
all Phil's fault; he has so many commissions pouring in that it's all the
perpetually tired Glass can do to keep up with them.  But one could also
argue that even this is no excuse for seamy transitions and formal schemes
which go nowhere.  Please pass the salt.

JOHN CAGE

Alright, before the Cageians get out the brickbats, let me qualify this
by saying I love Cage and don't suggest by including his name here that
he, himself is over-rated.  But 4'33" and all the attendant controversy
which has occupied this list for several days running IS so- most
decidedly.  When Cage "wrote" 4'33" at Black Mountain College in 1952 he
was forty years old, married, virtually unknown and didn't have two dimes
to rub together.  The premiere by David Tudor of 4'33" and the scandal it
precipitated provided badly needed publicity for the composer at a time
when his fortunes were down.  In 1960 he signed a deal with Henmar Press,
after which he would never again want.  Of course, one of the first scores
Henmar asked for was 4'33", which Cage had to prepare specifically as it
had never been 'written down'.  He also added a piece called 0'00' (noted
elsewhere on the list by a particularly perceptive poster) which is sort
of a followup to 4'33".  This tiny work can concieveably be played by any
person with or without instrumant at any time, and yet, cannot really be
played at all, as it specifies no events to be played in a duration of no
time.  If 4'33" is the joke, then 0'00" is the punchline.  By the time my
friend (and now composer/writer) David Paul and I caught up with Cage at
Wright State in 1980, the aged composer sould still tell the joke, but
seemed to have forgotten the punchline.  David once expressed the wish
that Cage could've simply apologized for 4'33", and indeed, I concur- it's
a terrible trick to play on intelligent listeners who would jump through
all sorts of hoops trying to grasp it's meaning, just as the list memebers
have lately done.  Cage worsened the the situation by rationalizing this
stunt and incorporating into his personal mythology, rather than just
admitting that, after all, it was just a gag.  Cage fanciers have a
tendency to put 4'33" on a pedestal next to such ground breaking warhorses
as the Beethoven 9th and the "Rite of Sping".  This comes at the expense of
Cage's own "Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano" which really is a
work deserving of such revolutionary company.  I must confess I just can't
abide by such unmitigated silliness on the part of intelligent thinkers.
The notion that Cage tought us to listen to the music the music in our
surroundingsis an absurdity which will simply not stand up to the test of
time.  How do think the great composers of the past, by and large, got
their ideas anyway? They worked from the sounds around them in addition to
emotions drawn from within which would be expected to produce the same
feeling when the music was played.  By extending 4'33" into the realm of
theory, Cage was simply re-stating the obvious.  John Cage had a naturally
inquisitive and inventive nature and tinkered with a wide variety of
approaches to music, writing, art and life.  I think to put your finger
down on a petit rien like 4'33" and say "here!  Here is where Cage changed
us forever!" is not only foolish but is a disservice to his memory.  It is
in the broad scope of the many things that Cage tried in which I like to
consider him, though I must confess a partiality to his pre-1953 and
post-1978 periods.  That middle period is largely a legacy of confusion,
public experimentaion, smoke and mirrors which in itself is overrated.

GRAHAM FITKIN

You might ask "Who in the hell is Graham Fitkin, and if I've never heard
of him, how can be overrated?" Well, he is English, and has his works
published on a front line contemporary music label, namely Argo.  His piece
"Cud" is like inhaling nitrous oxide and listening to '70s TV cop show
tracks.  It gets worse.  His "Hard Fairy" is a really rough go, and I can't
believe that a label like Argo would waste their time and money putting it
out.  My point is if he's going to write music that's this bad then please,
put it out on disc yourself.  Make room for somebody who's good.

And now five *under-rated* composers-

FRANZ BERWALD

So many listeners are scared off by the name of Berwald.  He was a late
romantic trapped in the body of late classical period composer, and his
music was too far out for his contemporaries, yet not far out enough for
a fair amount for someone who likes modern music only.  I think the lonely
swede will grab most CM fans by the throat on first hearing if he got only
the chance.  Certainly that was the case with myself, and I'm now a
certified Berwald addict.

JEAN BARRAQUE'

The spindly and oh-so delicate serial textures of Barraque" I feel
promote the idea that he was unique among frenchmen to carry the torch
of post-Webern serialism.  However, his short life insured him a small
output and destined him for obscurity.  With the current backlash against
serialism in force, I doubt that this will change any time soon, but if you
appreciate this music when it's done well, then Barraque's your man.  He
defintely wins my vote for most interesting use of the electric guitar in
a Classical chamber piece, Steve Martland notwithstanding.

COLIN McPHEE

Canandian-born, McPhee's interest in the rhythms of Pacific Islands
culture and transformation of it into concert music was aeons ahead of it's
time, but has captured little attention among CM listeners.  What a shame-
you're really missing out.  His music is a lost treasure of this century
just begging to be mined.  Like Harry Partch, McPhee found it difficult to
maintain support for his work, and lapsed into alcoholism, but unlike
Partch McPhee's music never betrays this 'bitterness'- it is transparent,
lustrous, invigorating and totally beautiful.  From his jazzy 1920s Piano
Concerto to his "Pastoral Symphony' and the glorious "Tabuh-Tabuhan"
McPhee's music is a joy to behold.  Right now I'm listening to the
aforementioned Symphony; in fact I've heard it four times this morning,
and it sounds better every time.  I invite you to check him out; you'll
be glad you did.

GEORGE ANTHEIL

I've already written a long piece about Antheil for the list.  Just a
brief mention that his reputaion as a bad boy futurist has obscured the
other fine music which he wrote in other styles.  There is yet much to
uncover from this composer.

CHARLES LUCKEYTH ROBERTS

Roberts, sadly, is good exapmle of a composers whose neglect has proven
fatal to his output.  His few recordings represent the very pinnacle
of San Juan Hill Stride Ragtime, but the corcert works he had written,
including a Piano Concerto, choral works, and orchestral music, have
vanished forever.  That's why it's important for fans of CM to be
conservationists also, and support efforts to bring the works of
lesser-known composers to light.

As stated in the opening, I'd like to hear who your favorite negelected
composers are- so over to you.

Uncle Dave Lewis
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