Out Of The Mouths Of Babes

Writes music professor, composer, and blogger Kyle Gann:

[In one of Dr. Gann's music courses he] played several examples of "postmodern" pieces that combined classical and symphonic idioms with jazz or rock or country and western, starting with William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and Experience and continuing with diverse examples by Christopher Rouse, Mason Bates, and Erkki-Sven Tüür. Virtually every such piece was met with an almost unanimous thumbs-down. First of all, the idea that orchestras would try to lure younger listeners into the concert hall with orchestra pieces influenced by Led Zeppelin was seen as transparently condescending. The idea that rock fans might in any way get the same kind of pleasure they get from hip-hop from a bunch of guys in tuxedos was apparently ludicrous. Even the more thoughtful, less gimmicky examples, though, fared badly. The idea of classical musicians attempting to simulate the energy of rock or jazz turns them off, and even the audio image of a jazz band alternating with the orchestra injures their sense of good taste.

All the well-intentioned but misguided and wrongheaded types referred to here, take note (N.P.I.).

RTWT here.