Evening star., 1946-12-29
Composers Ask
Boosters for
i. S. Music
By Alice Eversmon

The Composers Authors Guild has
sent out one of the best pleas for
the American composer and his
music that has been formulated.
1t states in several paragraphs just
what the situation is today as re-
CARDS the encouragement of the
native composer and how to remedy
it. More clearly organized propa-
ganda of this sort would have more
weight with the general public than
any efforts made by the few promi-
nent musicians who are willing to
champion native output
For one of the well-stressed points
is that the American public responds
to technique of continuous
plugging pressure and repetition"
To make song popular" for in
stance, "the formula calls for about
per cent composer inspiration and
SO per cent publisher, promoter and
interpreter perspiration." In the
field of more serious music, the
composer is supposed to combine
business acumen with creative fac
ulties and know how to promote
himself. Unfortunately, few gen.
fuses have these qualities equally
balanced.
Public Guidance Needed.
The guild does not blame the
public but rather the artists. the
teachers, the publishers and those
who have the power to choose what
to hear. The guild says: Musical
taste is formed principally by fa-
miliarity. And familiarity requires
performances-repeated public per-
formances." Foreign artists, so
predominant in our musical life,
cannot be censored for preferring
the music of their country.
when foreign artists come here"
says the guild, they play their own
music, and when they are at home
they play their own music, too. But
in the U. S. A. our own artists play
the music Of our foreign neighbors
and when they go to other countries
they play the music of these coun-
tries, too. So foreign music gets it
four ways, but American music
none.
This condition is not the fault OF
the artists. Since they are diplo-
matte enough to put on French
music in France, they would per-
form American music in America.
But we do not insist on it. Our
audiences do not insist on it and
with very few exceptions, our boards
of directors, Americans who main
tain and operate educational insti-
tutions, do not conceive their re-
Sponsibility in terms of doing some
thing for virile, creative American
music.
Americans Held Receptive.
"Some of our native artists. con-
ductors and impresarios defend
themselves on the ground that peo-
Pile will not listen to serious Ameri-
can music. People will listen. They
have learned to listen to Stravinsky
with pleasure because conductors in
the United States have been deter
mined to play Stravinsky. Shosta-
kovich and his Russian symphonies,
with the ink still wet, have become
American household words through
constant repetition supported by the
propaganda of pressure groups"
There is solution. 1t lies in the
laps of leaders in the various fields
Of American music. Theirs is the
power, the opportunity and the cor
responding responsibility to make
themselves articulate in promoting
the wider use of standard and serious
American composers. Through
their sympathetic interest and enter
prising support, more and better
American music can be created, pub
lished, sold, taught. interpreted and
universally appreciated and loved
both at home and abroad"