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
From time to time, the charge of elitism has surfaced in this forum, which has led me to wonder about the evolution of this term. In recent years, it has been a powerful political weapon used against people who have subtle, nuanced approaches to moral issues. I suppose the logic is based on the idea that anyone who thinks carefully about an issue, rather than simply going along with group wisdom, is an intellectual, and intellectuals have a natural disdain for anyone who doesn't share the same powers of analysis.
Which reminds me of Maurice Maeterlinck's astonishing, anti-elitist statement that great thinking is just insofar as it connects with people who do not think at all. Would anyone care to defend the parallel proposition for composers: that music is only great if it connects with people who care nothing for music?
posted by Lawrence Dillon
10:04 AM
