LABELS AND PIGEONHOLES

posted by James Reel

    By coincidence, two bloggers in the past couple of days have addressed the issue of categorizing composers past and present. Kyle Gann, a composer himself associated with the Downtown set (a group easier to describe by what it is not than by the many things it is), considers his position in relation to the genre-crossing Hollywood director William Wyler. On the other side of the continent, Timothy Mangan uses examples from the past two centuries to dismiss the notion that labels are limiting: “As if any label were so limiting that it didn't encompass many styles. As if any label were so limiting that applying it would keep (a classical) artist from pursuing his latest Gershwin project. Labels don't work that way.”