Several items of note including two from the Halloween issue of the New Yorker (items not online; go buy the magazine) and one from the Fredösphere (online, free and often surprising):
- In a New Yorker paragraph about the Yale at Carnegie concert of Ives songs, it is stated that "Ives is generally recognized as America's greatest classical composer." Really, generally recognized? I think his body of song represents an amazing achievement and I'll accept Ives as the first great American composer (although I would nominate Aaron Copland as the greatest). This so astounds me, I'd like to hear if anyone wants to suggest Ives as greatest.
- Fred of Fredösphere basically calls Ives a coward, at least on a harmonic basis (along with Elgar). I also enjoy Fred's continued dislike of Haydn even as I have warmed up to the composer earlier this year after listening to the Robert Greenberg Haydn lectures.
- Speaking of Aaron Copland, Steve Martin, in a nostalgic piece centered around performing at Knott's Berry Farm early in his career, tells a bizarre anecdote about he and a friend visiting the composer for an interview:
We emerged a half hour later with the coveted interview and got in the car, never mentioning the men in skimpy black thongs, because, like trigonometry, we couldn't quite comprehend it.
I'm not going to argue for anyone, but I'm happy to argue against Copland, whose music I simply dislike.
Posted by: Lisa Hirsch | October 24, 2007 at 10:21 PM