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Found: Three Examples of 21st-Century Music

“..all of these pieces have in common a treatment of the form as a sort of HISTORICAL artifact and not a living, breathing form…” _{says Phil Fried: April 16, 2012 at 1:47 pm}

Untrue.

In my experience the large ensembles (orchestras and opera) have a better track record of style representation than American chamber groups (which tend to stick to a single style of new music). The Minnesota orchestra has commissioned serial music from me I’m still waiting for Bang on a Can.
Also:
Music is not in stasis and any art which reaches a point of stasis is dead. This makes the making composition lists well controversial. At best one can only mark the signposts on the way.

‍“folk music being appropriated into a formal constraints…”
“If anything they’re appropriating classical music traditions into pop.”
“Leave it to an American to take a scholastic project of limited merit and magically transform it into a vast new opportunity for personal networking enrichment.” _{Phil Fried says: April 17, 2012 at 4:37 pm}

(3 points noted in reverse order)

I myself might have made the above comment, yet as someone who also studied composition in Europe I know that the exact same stuff goes on there too. I mean really?

Unlike America; Europe, Canada too, has “official” composers.

The New York Rock and Roll Ensemble and Ars Nova were both known as classical crossovers many many years ago. I noticed no furrowed brows at that time. What made them such was their hardcore mainstream classical training. I would have a hard time accepting any musician who claims to represent a tradition without something more than mere success.

To suggest that popular music has no constraints is puzzling.

Anthologies and the Problem of Pre-Fab Teaching

‍“…but to teach only the composers discussed in someone else’s textbook…”
“..to place these pieces in context, and make our complaints into curricula…” _{says Phil Fried: April 20, 2012 at 5:09 pm}

I’m sure your not trying to be high handed, but you don’t seem to have considered the possibility that some of us are in no way connected to a college or University or will ever be. So my point of view is not as teacher but as a artist/composer trying to define myself; to find my own context.

What curriculum do we represent?

So for me this can never be a “professional” discussion.

Its personal.