From a program recorded in 1975, Charles Amirkhanian discusses the politics of new music in the San Francisco Bay Area, with reference to the unsympathetic criticism, leveled at avant-garde artists such as John Cage and Merce Cunningham, by music critics at the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle, among others. Amirkhanian argues that while Bay Area audiences clearly support the radical styles of the avant-garde, the local papers of note only employ music critics that favor the contemporary classical music of more academically oriented composers, such as Roger Sessions. Amirkhanian points out that these critics routinely disparage the avant-garde composers as charlatans and purveyors of puns, jokes, and gags, all the while refusing to even describe these experimental works in their articles. Reading from a letter that he wrote to the San Francisco Chronicle, Amirkhanian makes an impassioned plea for a new critic at the paper who will be knowledgeable and sympathetic towards the great avant-garde composers of the 20th Century. Although some of these avant-garde composers have since gained greater recognition for their groundbreaking efforts, and much of what was once regarded as radical is now seen as more acceptable by the mainstream press, many of the issues Amirkhanian touches upon, including critics’ tendency to not adequately describe the music being reviewed, are still all too prevalent today. |
