Bill H. wrote: >1) defining "American music" in Eurocentric terms is (almost) always >going to be disadvantageous to the former, as it can often only be a "pale >imitation" of the great classical music of the European masters. The only >music Yardley mentions that might be worthy of this standard is "Rhapsody >in Blue" and "Appalachian Spring". Actually I have a feeling that many Europeans would disagree. I would venture to say that to a Boulez or a Knussen the most important American music would lie with Crumb, Carter, Ives, and Nancarrow. >2) defining "American music" in terms of the concert hall and the symphony >orchestra is far too limiting. It leaves out the vast contributions of >popular American composers, jazz etc. In these areas, American music can >stand with anything else, but because it is often derided as "popular", it >gets no mention in such anthologies. While this is definitley a valid point, aren't these articles about a CD set put out by the NYPO, an orchestra that plays in a concert hall? I don't understand why this is even an issue in regards to this CD-set. It's an understood precondition, or so I thought. >My own take on the article is of a skeptical bent--anything put out by >the NYPO on "American Music" is likely to refer to the symphonic side of >things, and this shouldn't by itself be the subject of a polemic, any more >than a jazz or a rock'n'roll (or Country and Western for that matter) >anthology is likely to be genre-centric. I wouldn't even say it's an anthology. It's just a celebration of the ties the NYPO has with American music and the history it has of performing and premiering important American works. I don't think they're even attempting to be an end-all collection of any type of music. >I also wonder if the comparisons being made are between music from >different eras. American symphonic music is dominated by 20th century >composers, and in this sense 20th century CM tends to get unfavorable >comparisons with the 3Bs, or Mozart, Chopin etc. whatever the country >of origin? That depends on the person and is another issue altogether. Again, you're arguing against a precondition of this release. >That said, "classical" American Music also includes chamber and piano >music, songs, Broadway musicals (at least to me) and similar scaled works >that don't make it into the concert hall per se. ... Again, I think we all realise this (or the vast majority do) but you must remember what exactly this set is and entails (see above and the intro book to this set). I myself find it an extremely enjoyable collection with many great performances and interesting pieces (Crumb's Sun-CHild, finally on CD!) I think it is a great project put out by the NYPO and hope that other orchestras will follow suit. Cheers, Marcus Maroney