Thursday, March 03, 2005
Seriously, Folks. . .
Marc Geelhoed has an essay up at New Music Box this month on trying to get a psychic reading on who will win the Pullitzer. It's kinda cute, although it didn't hold my attention and I didn't finish it. I do have one strong objeciton though -- he says:
"I covered the new rules of the Pulitzer Prize for the 15 assembled clairvoyants, including Jones, saying that it wasn't just serious composers who could nominate pieces this year, that it was open to jazz musicians, improvisers, even film composers."
We need to stop using that term, "serious composers." Film composers and jazz musicians are every bit as serious as Steve Reich and Eliot Carter are, and the music that they make is every bit as serious. It's extremely condescending to use such a value-laden term as the label for what we're doing. True, we don't have another term that we can agree on either, but that's no excuse for being rude.
posted by Galen H. Brown
8:28 AM
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