Home
My Mission
The discovery and promotion of 20th- and 21st-century classical music that embodies traditional aesthetic values of emotional and spiritual expression, along with clarity of formal structure and coherence.
Recent Writings
Rosner’s Requiem: On a Forgotten Genius of American Music
In the spring of 1970, I was about to enter the Manhattan School of Music to pursue the study of musicology. At the time, I was working at C. F. Peters Corporation, then the primary publisher of the music of Alan Hovhaness, a well-known American composer whose unusual style involved combining the modal polyphony of…
Continue Reading Rosner’s Requiem: On a Forgotten Genius of American Music
MUCZYNSKI Piano Sonatas
MUCZYNSKI Piano Sonatas: Nos. 1-3 ● Zachary Lopes (pn) ● ALBANY TROY1771 (42:44) This is a most welcome recording of Robert Muczynski’s three compelling piano sonatas—the first to appear since Laurel released its two-CD set of the composer’s own performances of his complete solo piano music. I should mention that though the latter recordings were…
VINCENT PERSICHETTI: Grazioso, Grit, and Gold
VINCENT PERSICHETTI: Grazioso, Grit, and Gold. by Andrea Olmstead. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018. 493 pp. Cloth. $110 The third quarter of the 20th century was an enormously fruitful period in American classical music, which saw the appearance of an extraordinary number of masterworks—indeed, some among the finest works produced in this country. Yet…
Continue Reading VINCENT PERSICHETTI: Grazioso, Grit, and Gold
Thoughts on Evaluating Unfamiliar Music
I have been a musicologist and critic for almost 50 years now, during which most of my activity has involved the description, assessment, and–in some cases– advocacy of music composed since 1915. Since there really aren’t generally accepted criteria for such evaluations, most critics—not to mention armchair musicologists—offer their reactions and judgments on an intuitive,…
Book: Voices in the Wilderness
Six American Neo-Romantic Composers
Despite the Modernist search for new and innovative aesthetics and rejection of traditional tonality, several twentieth century composers have found their own voice while steadfastly relying on the aesthetics and techniques of Romanticism and 19th century composition principles.
Book: Voices of Stone and Steel
The Music of William Schuman, Vincent Persichetti, and Peter Mennin
William Schuman, Vincent Persichetti, and Peter Mennin were three of the most significant American composers of the 20th century, yet their music has largely disappeared from view since their respective deaths. In The Music of William Schuman, Vincent Persichetti, and Peter Mennin: Voices of Stone and Steel, Walter Simmons provides a thorough examination of the lives and work of these artists, clarifying their considerable individuality both as composers and as human beings.
Featured Album: Arnold ROSNER
Requiem, Op. 59
Kelley Hollis, soprano
Feargal Mostyn-Williams, counter-tenor
Thomas Elwin, tenor
Gareth Brynmor John, baritone
London Phiharmonic Orchestra
Nick Palmer, conductor
Crouch End Festival Chorus
David Temple, Chorus Master
Toccata Classics TOCC-0545