Frank Oteri has an essay on NewMusicBox about who should be classified as an American composer -- clearly an issue relevant for aworks. I spent time in August reading several Schoenberg biographies to better understand his life after he came to the US and to better understand what he actually composed while here. From his arrival in 1933 until his 1951 death in Los Angeles, he wrote, depending on what you count, on the order of twenty compositions. What I can't say, having not heard enough of these works, is what influence if any did he absorb into his music from living here.
The NewMusicBox definition of American composer:
any composer born here, whether working at home or abroad, as well as any composer who moves to this country and continues to compose.
Therefore, Bartók's (or would it be more American to spell it Bartok without the accent) Concerto for Orchestra is classified as an American work. And only time will tell if history agrees with Charles Wuorinen's notion that Stravinsky and Schoenberg are the greatest American composers.
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