ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that in composers, the older composers are much more serious about their craft and work at their music much harder, while the younger composers are a little more slap-dash and take many more short-cuts. There is a kind of plagiarism going on, a kind of copying. Some of the younger Chinese composers – who have Chou Wen-chung to thank for coming to America and studying at Columbia and being set on a path that has made them famous – take tremendous short-cuts. They just copy Chinese folk music, “doctor it up” a little, make a few minor changes, and call it their own music. There was a man by the name of Franco Colombo, who was Varese’s publisher in New York. His dealings as a publisher and his handling of Varese’s music bordered on the criminal. At any rate, Wen-chung spent a lot of time with that. Several aspects of administering the Varese estate have taken their toll on Chou’s own productivity.
