Sunday, April 20, 2014

Forgotten Though Recently Gone

We went to a CSO concert last night. The same program played on Thursday and the Trib critic relayed some commentary the conductor provided to the audience:

'There is an entire "lost generation" of American symphonists who are shamefully neglected by their nation's orchestras, their works cast aside in favor of trendier, more recent music.'

But, you know, that's the way it works in the arts. Trends are important. And people who are considered immortals in their time are often forgotten shortly afterward.

There's a joke about it in Rostand's Cyrano. A character lists off members of the French Academy from the period, and gushes that they are all names that will never be forgotten. The joke is that no one today knows the names, but that Cyrano, who was not in the Academy, is nonetheless remembered.

Due to shifting artistic trends
immortal fame often ends.

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