As the original Ades demonologist, I enjoyed Scott's similar opionion, but my day was really made by Steve: >I don't understand the fuss over Ades myself. I have the Living Toys and >the Powder Her Face albums. It seems like nicely-orchestrated piffle to >me. Indeed. And `nice piffle' goes pretty much for his orchestral pieces, so much favored by my otherwise great and good friend, K. Nagano. `These Premised Are Alarmed,' indeed! What made me react to negatively to `Powder' (both in Berkeley, with Nagano, and in Aspen) was the nasty streak in the text, in the whole piece. I have never responded well to the `Clockwork Orange' culture. On the other hand, I finally heard Ades' fame-making early `Arcadiana' at the Ottawa Strings of the Future festival, and a *very* nice piffle it is. Unfortunately for Ades, at the same festival I heard several works by Kelly-Marie Murphy, and when I start commissioning music (the next Lotto drawing is on Wednesday), it will be Murphy, not Ades. She has all the intensity, sincerity, repeatability I could never find in the boy wonder. Janos Gereben/SF [log in to unmask]