Trying to Define What Is American Music

In his article “Made in America, But Rarely Played Here” (Aug. 13), music critic Mark Swed makes a number of valid and deeply felt points about the need to play more American music in our concert halls. However, his assertion that “most orchestras in this country do not know and do not care about American music” seems particularly myopic, when one considers the work of Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano, Andrew Litton and Marin Alsop (to name just a few), and that there is an orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl whose mission is to restore and perform the legacy of American music, and especially those works written in this city.

For 10 seasons the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra has brought previously unplayed and neglected American works to an audience that now numbers more than 3 million people. These have included works by Adams and Corigilano, as well as Weill, Korngold, Tiomkin, Waxman, Ellington, Herrmann, Gershwin and Richard Rodgers.

On one recent weekend alone, the Bowl Orchestra gave the West Coast premiere of Rodgers’ 1939 ballet “Ghost Town,” Kurt Weill’s 1939 (and very American) “Railroads on Parade,” the first performance in 57 years of music from Victor Herbert’s “Natoma,” as well as the world premiere restoration of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel.”

When he writes that Elliott Carter is the “universally acknowledged dean of American composers,” one has to wonder to what universe Swed is referring. Perhaps the East Coast musical establishment would agree with him. However, some might suggest that John Williams or David Raksin is the dean of American music. Or, equally, there would be those who would acknowledge Stephen Sondheim for this title. Indeed, why not Benny Carter?

And speaking of Elliott Carter, I lived in Berlin last year and can report that, although his opera “What’s Next?” was produced and brilliantly performed at the Stadtsoper, the actual answer to the question posed by the title was “Free tickets!” since the half-empty houses were almost completely populated by those who had received complimentary seats, giving the false impression of public interest.

As one of the handful of American conductors working in Europe, I can say that audiences and orchestra managements over there want Gershwin and Bernstein for their American programs. And only now is the film music of native-born as well as emigre Americans being played and finding huge success. This is simply not so with the American music Swed is talking about.

Perhaps the issue here is the definition of American music. While I totally agree with Swed and his passion for playing more American music, I would just hope he could find a way of embracing a larger vision of what constitutes important and vital music written on these vast and complicated shores.

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John Mauceri is principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and music director of Pittsburgh Opera as of the 2000-01 season.