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Article: Contrasting Composers Define a Great Divide.(Arts&Entertainment)
- Article from:
- The New York Observer (New York, NY)
- Article date:
- November 29, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The New York Observer. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Charles Michener
Many labels have been attached to American composers (post-serial, postmodern, neoclassical, neo-Romantic, maximalist, minimalist and so on), but I prefer to divide them into two groups: the troubadours and the transcendentalists. The former have their feet on the ground; they're rooted in well-fertilized, well-trod soil. The latter have their heads in the clouds; their business is to discover previously unseen musical vistas.
What unites each group is not so much style as disposition. The troubadours comment: They sing of what we know. The transcendentalists speculate: They sing of things scarcely fathomable. Among the grounded ...