Mark Landson wrote: >Margaret wrote: > >>I'm very enthusiastic about 20th-C music; that's why when I see composers >>like Kernis or Corigliano winning awards for their tepid, easy neo-tonal >>pabulum, I'm quite appalled. Thanks goodness Carter, Boulez, and others >>do get some recognition as well. > >Do you think music needs to be atonal to be taken seriously today, or to >not be considered "pabulum" by your standards? For myself, the use of one technique over another does not lend credibility to a work. My standards are based upon the ability to present a well thought musical statement. For me, Corigliano's has the ability to present a well developed musical statement, whereas I find much of the work of a composer like Torke to be gesture with the only content being gesture. In many ways,I see his music as a reflection of much of what has become of the ways in which some view the art, where the gesture is all that interests them. Karl