ABSTRACT
People seem to be worrying almost continuously because they can see no sign of an American ‘school’ of music. Virgil Thomson’s aphorism that to be an American composer that entire one requires is to be an American and to write music may be simplistic but is fundamentally true. The promising way towards a rich and various American music seems much less likely to lie through any system of branding, organizing, and licensing, such as nationalism and all other ‘isms’ are too apt to foster, than through an elastic eclecticism of individual choice. As musical life on both sides of the Atlantic develops and changes, composers in the United States will cease to be seen primarily as American. American composers can look forward to the future with confidence that they are equal partners with their European contemporaries, no longer a fringe novelty but a significant part of Western musical culture, with an impressive history of which to be proud.
