“Who deserves to be considered America’s most significant classical composer? Concertgoers of a certain age will doubtless choose Aaron Copland or George Gershwin, the creators of the first distinctively American-sounding styles of classical composition, while more contemporary listeners are more likely to cite Philip Glass or John Adams, who made minimalism the dominant classical-music idiom of the postwar era. But if ‘significant’ is taken to mean ‘influential,’ then a strong, if seemingly paradoxical, case can be made for a composer who, for all the undeniable influence he has exerted on American music, failed to write even one work that has made its way into the repertoires of any well-known orchestra, opera company, chamber group, singer, or instrumentalist…”
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
