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From Phillip Clark earlier in the week: Where have the great composers gone? Clark covers a lot of the modern/contemporary music in The Gramophone - incredibly knowledgeable and with a deep knowledge of jazz at the experimental end too. But a bit of a a Young Fogie - has definitely imbibed the 'Darling, I'm so unimpressed' aesthetic they seem to teach at public schools to prepare their boys for leadership. Anyway, here he's decided the sky is falling in. And then, later in the week, a reply: Composers seek a new definition of greatness in a digital age I especially like: "Fixed and hierarchical ideas of “greatness” feel off-kilter with the times, even socially divisive in their narrow view of what greatness is and how it manifests itself not only musically, but also culturally and demographically. The brilliant composer Shiva Feshareki agrees. “It’s simply a different time. We live in a world where we are constantly sharing ideas. There is a place now for so many different types of music and also collaborations between different types of people on an international level. Do we really care about who is a “great” composer? Or do we care more about how we have more fluidity now, and that we have access to more perspectives, which means art can positively impact the lives of a wider variety of people?” [Brexit and Trump might suggest otherwise, but...] (I'll forgive use of the A word.) Whether it is 'great' or not I certainly find plenty of new music by contemporary composers to keep me interested (even if, like most people, I mostly listen to well established classical pieces).