Composers Forum is a daily web log that allows invited contemporary composers to share their thoughts and ideas on any topic that interests them--from the ethereal, like how new music gets created, music history, theory, performance, other composers, alive or dead, to the mundane, like getting works played and recorded and the joys of teaching. If you're a professional composer and would like to participate, send us an e-mail.
Record companies, artists and publicists are invited to submit CDs to be considered for review. Send to: Jerry Bowles, Editor, Sequenza 21, 340 W. 57th Street, 12B, New York, NY 10019
Let me put it another way. You have this hill called Mt. Olympus and up there live these spirits called Bach, Beethoven, Brahms (and people who brunch would say Mozart). This is the Big Show, the immortality thing, the Ted Williams/Henry Aaron tier, the William Shakespeare Parkway, composers whose work is so ubiquitous that children in remote French villages have heard their names. Who, since Brahms, is likely to end up there? Some misguided readers obviously disagree but I say Bartok is there already. But who comes next? Wagner and Janacek are very close and personally, I think Messiaen is a shoo-in and John Adams has a shot at being the first American to reach that level.
posted by Jerry Bowles
1:07 PM
