Lands without music

[Darwin]

Some countries seem quite inexplicably, when compared with quite near neighbours, to have produced no "classical" music of significance despite having a cultural life which is part of, or derived from, that of Europe.

For example: Bulgaria; Canada; Uruguay (there are plenty of others). Countries analogous (sp?)  to these, such as Rumania, Australia and Mexico, all have composers most of us could name. And they all have orchestras, and presumably music teachers, and state broadcasters. So what explains their failure to produce any significant music?

Ireland - novelists and playwrights galore, but no composer of significance since, oh, Stanford? And it's not as though he was exactly a giant...

[Philoctetes3]

So what explains their failure to produce any significant music?

Two things:
1. Your topic title is a bit of a lie, as those lands do have music, fantastic music. Just music that doesn't suit you, apparently.
2. The quoted text is just bullshit.

[Darwin]

Ooooooh - so much aggression (and so little information) packed into so few words... 

[Philoctetes3]

Ooooooh - so much aggression (and so little information) packed into so few words... 

Two things:
1. That wasn't even close to being aggressive.
2. The informational content wasn't small.

[Gurn Blanston]

I would dearly like to see some unenforced civility. Enforced civility is so... uncivil. If you please, Philo.

GB

[Philoctetes3]

I would dearly like to see some unenforced civility. Enforced civility is so... uncivil. If you please, Philo.
GB

I got you Gurn. Although, I don't think that civility applies equally. I'll hold to that mark.

[DieNacht]

I don´t think that the OP basic assumption really holds that well. Both Bulgaria, Romania, Mexico and Ireland have lots of composers, including writers of symphonies and concertos etc., often of good quality, but didn´t receive much attention from the major record companies. Mexico got a little more attention, as regards Romania it was practically only Enescu, who made an international career with strong connections to France.
Uruguay is a very small nation but also has a bunch of names:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Uruguay
The "unsung composers website" for instance also tells more of the musical life of the countries.

In Ireland you also have at least Harty and Corcoran too.

Romania and Bulgaria were poor countries and somewhat stuck in the Eastern Block era (but especially Bulgaria allowed some experimentation musically and got attention for that too), whereas Poland, Czechia, Hungary and GDR traditionally had stronger connections with the cultural life of Central Europe at that time and before.

The music just waits to be discovered, it´s a matter of time, until a better overview is established - if the ressources in the classical music industry are still there.

But as regards the individual, average listener, it is also limited how much music you can actually cope with.

(EDIT: post has been edited. Sorry for the quick style in the first "version")




 

[Darwin]

Wealth doesn't seem to account for differences in musical activity between countries. Canada isn't much less wealthy than the USA, but is a musical pygmy in comparison. Uruguay, I suspect, is significantly richer than Mexico, but whereas I have heard substantial music by three Mexican composers* (I lead quite a sheltered life...) I have yet to hear a note from a Uruguayan.

I expect that you are right that decent music has been produced in (for instance) Bulgaria, and that we have simply yet to hear it in Western Europe. I know that you are right that there is an awful lot of music, and too little time!





*I meant to instance Mexico as an unaccountably musical country, but it seems to have come out garbled

[PaulSC]

I don't think there really are any lands without music. So I don't understand the point of this thread. Is it about enforcing a particularly narrow set of musical values that privileges some lands at the expense of others?

[kishnevi]

It depends on what parameters you impose for what significant music is and is not.  And what gets the attention of the musical press and record labels. 

The USA has loads and loads of composers at work even as we speak, almost none of them even locally well known.  The only reason I know about a composer like our own Karl is because of GMG; I know about another composer (Jeffrey Quick, based in Cleveland) solely because I became acquainted with him in a Yahoo political group.  And both these gentlemen write good music--what I would call "significant"  (Don't know what Darwin means by the term.)

And that's my own country.  Is it any wonder if I don't know of composers from Latin America or Eastern Europe?

Although I will not pity Bulgaria.  Any country that has produced Viktor Krum has no cause to be ashamed of itself 

[starrynight]

I think there have been good composers pretty much everywhere.  Perhaps classical music may not have been as central to some places as in others and this may have resulted in not so much advanced teaching of composition in some places.  But some music will have got promoted and distributed more in some places (bigger record companies, more orchestras) so that obscures things as well.  It does probably help to have a certain economic power in some of these facets of education and recording.