Don Satz, whom I realize may not be completely serious, nevertheless gets my blood up: >The 20th century contributions of British composers may well outweigh >the contributions from the American side; that's nothing unexpected either. >The U.S. has been a great source of 'contribution' to many areas of life, >but art music is not one of our strengths or priorities. Oy! First, I don't know how one does the weighing. Nevertheless, whenever I hear how weak is American music, I always want to know what American music the person has heard. At this time, I think American music one of the most interesting and strong in the Western world. I don't know a better composer now practicing than John Adams or Steve Reich. As far as the century goes, the following have nothing to apologize for or be humble about: Ives, Griffes, Copland, Thomson, Piston, Sessions, Crumb, Diamond, Blitzstein, Gershwin, Barber, Lees, Dello Joio, Gould, Cowell, Mennin, Persichetti, Bernstein, Antheil, Foss, Kernis, Hovhaness, Palmer, Harris, Hanson, Herrmann, Hoiby, Seeger, Ruggles, Fine, Talma, Shapero, Babbitt, Bergsma, Russell, Clayton, Rouse, Daugherty, Schuman, and the beat goes on. This doesn't include the great pop songwriters - I can't think of one first-rate British songwriter, for example, other than Ray Noble, before the Beatles - or jazz people. Steve Schwartz