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Essays
If you have researched a neglected or unappreciated American composer from the past and would like to submit a short essay or CD review for a general audience, send your inquiry to:
The Vanishing American Composer
The more we move into the 21st century, the more obvious becomes the lack of musical education in our schools.
Fewer and fewer young people seem to have the opportunity for learning an instrument. Singers are really all most kids see and which the primary focus of pop television seems to further.
It is a good time to begin rethinking our American musical heritage of the 20 th century.
It is rather sad to think that the music of composers like William Schuman, Walter Piston, and Roy Harris may go the way of so many other composers. There are flashes of brilliance in some of our orchestras, but caution is the key. With a recording industry bent on rehashing and reissuing back catalogue, or as is the case now since the BMG/Sony merger, combining alternate catalogues there is little hope for much new recording of anything really new. Those interested in new American music really have to dig, or surf a lot, to find this music.
Only Naxos continues to provide a consistent overview of music from America (and many other countries) which must shamefully be recorded overseas most of the time.
Orchestras though are figuring out they need new product on shelves if they are going to survive.
What will they turn to in the future for recording purposes?
Listener Favorites
One example of the emphasis on well-known American composers is found in the May issue of Classic FM magazine from the UK.
They have a survey of the The 2009 Hall of Fame, with 300 works chosen by its listeners, including these works by the three of The Big Five composers:
Samuel Barber:
Adagio for Strings (No. 15)
Violin Concerto (No. 140)
Aaron Copland:
Appalachian Spring (No. 203)
Fanfare for the Common Man (No. 155)
Rodeo (No. 240)George Gershwin:
Piano Concerto in F (No. 229)
Rhapsody in Blue (No. 29)
Walking the Dog from movie musical, SHALL WE DANCE (No. 226)There are not any works by Leonard Bernstein or Charles Ives on this survey. But there are six film scores by John Williams and also a piece by Jay Ungar ("Ashokan Farewell" from THE CIVIL WAR at No. 20).
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Home page: Classical Composers
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