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The fact remains that seriously intentioned U.S. composers manage to get along, what with commissions, grants, recording fees and, in most cases, supplementary jobs. Ready to take the place of the middle-aged U.S. composers is a host of younger men—Seymour Shifrin, Andrew Imbrie, Ned Rorem—who are experimenting in a wide range of styles. Some follow the "neoclassic" Stravinsky; others work in variations of the tonal-row technique of Schoenberg. Still others experiment with the weird harmonies obtainable on tape and electronic instruments. Wrote 43-year-old Composer Roger Goeb (Homage a Debussy, Symphony No. j) in an open letter to his public: "If at times we seem to be making raucous noises, please don't think we do it to drive you away . . . There are some rather raucous happenings in our time."
Despite such raucousness, U.S. composers—technically the best-educated in the world, and perhaps overeducated—are deeply preoccupied with theory and "schools." But they are also the most responsible, says Composer Milton Babbitt, 41. "Oh, they may take a fling, and write something just to be different, but they take another look and blame it on 'drinking too much the night before.'" Whatever the U.S. composer turns out —whether it is night-before or morning-after music—he is more than likely to get at least a first hearing. With dozens of award committees poring over scores, no real talent is likely to go undetected. The modern composer's most serious trouble has often been a barrier of strangeness between himself and his listener. In odd ways and places, the barrier shows signs of breaking down. Composer William Schuman, who is also president of Manhattan's Juilliard School of Music, recalls the shock of recognition he felt as he walked by an Atlantic City bar to hear first a few strains of his own Undertow, then a bit of his Sixth Symphony, and finally a snatch of his Credendum issuing through the door. When he stopped in for a beer, he discovered that his music, gunned up electronically and chopped into scene-size bites, was being used as the accompaniment for a TV drama.
Serious music that is suitable for a thriller, or a saloon, may not be a bad omen for the future. For, as Emerson said: "Art should not be detached."
Let me go where'er I will I hear a sky-born music still.
* A case in point: the fate of Angel Records, which did more than most companies to add distinction to the LP repertory (Gieseking's Debussy, Callas' Tosca, Beecham's Abduction from the Seraglio, the Boccherini quartets). Despite five years of artistic brilliance and at least moderate financial success, Angel this month was handed over by its British parent company (Electric & Musical Industries, Ltd.) to another E.M.I, subsidiary -Hollywood's big, successful, commercial Capitol Records. Out as Angel's bosses went Dario and Dorle Soria, remarkable husband-and-wife team whose flair had kept Angel flying high.