Marcus Maroney wrote: >Stirling Newberry wrote: > >>Benjamin is a hack. He doesn't need worries about accessibility to >>trip him up, he does that quite well on his own. It is true there are >>hacks that think they are better compsoers because they make music with >>a particular kind of pleasing sonic surface. But the over riding >>problem is that they are hacks, and would be whether writing complex >>poly-tuning/poly-rhythm/multi-ethinic serial music or I-IV-V rehashes. > >Having the pleasure to work with Benjamin this summer at Tanglewood, >I have problems with this extremely off-base and generalized remark. >Simply put, Benjamin is one of the most ingenious, genuine musicians I have >ever gotten to work with. Just maybe people are talking of different Benjamins?? There's Arthur Benjamin (b. 1898; d. 1960) by whom I know only his "Jamaican Rhumba" which I actually find quite nice, and whom I *thought* at first everybody was talking about until I found out that there was also a George Benjamin (b. 1960), by whom I don't recall having heard anything. Hey, people were getting their Williamses confused just a short while ago. Walter Meyer