I too find Tan Dun's work empty, but then that's what I think of most minimalism. And I too have wondered, along with Karl Miller, if the acceptance of Tan Dun is merely a reaction to the ugly music of the mid- to late 20th century. It has probably always been true that music composed at the "wrong time" ends up in the dumpster or at least in a box in the attic. Fashion is fashion; it has never been based on "substance" or intrinsic worth. Tan Dun is currently fashionable. Who knows what will be next? I don't think Karl is showing his age by thinking "they just don't make them like they used to." Of course they don't. I used to think that this represented a significant lowering of the bar, but now I'm not so sure. It may be that the bar has simply moved someplace else. I think it has everything to do with what the concert audience is looking for. Many of us in our younger days were thrilled by the "new" music of Stravinsky, Bartok, Shostakovitch, Britten and a host of other composers who offered athletic rhythms, memorable lyric lines presented in exciting new harmonic garb, clear-cut material developed with a logic we could follow, and so forth. There are still composers who produce music based on these principles of what guys my age call "substance," but they are not the people Alex Ross and Alan Rich write about. In any case, the qualities I find attractive in music are apparently not the qualities that younger audiences care about. And so I doubt that in another generation music lovers will look back with longing to the Tan Dun era. By that time it will be something else. And by that time, I'll be out of here! David Lamb in Seattle *********************************************** The CLASSICAL mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's HDMail High Deliverability Mailer for reliable, lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html