These are essays from my blog PostClassic, on Arts Journal. I blogged actively from August 29, 2003 to August 24, 2016. Out of 1568 published posts, the bulk were of ephemeral interest, but I've saved here the essays and thoughts I would have been sorry to lose if they disappeared over there. - KG
2003:
Remembering One's Ignorance - August 23, 2003
Declining Literacy 1: Man Plus Moment - August 28, 2003
Declining Literacy 2: Music's Tower of Babel - August 28, 2003
Loving, Hating Carter, Boulez - September 3, 2003
Censorship by Word Count - September 5, 2003
Recording and its Unfulfilled Demands - October 17, 2003
You Could Do Something with That - September 18, 2003
Interesting Revelation - October 14, 2003
Recording and its Unfulfilled Demands - October 17, 2003
Charles Rosen's Sins of American Omission - October 21, 2003
Almost Too Beautiful - October 26, 2003
System and its Discontents - November 20, 2003
Practice! Practice! Practice! - November 26, 20032004:
Following the Classical Script - February 23, 2004
Rzewski on Composition vs. Improvsation - March 15, 2004
New Music in Old Europe - March 24, 2004
"Time for Europe to Look Ahead" - March 26, 2004
Modern Prejudices - April 5, 2004
Postclassical (Un)Defined at Last - May 10, 2004
Pullet Surprise: New Horizons in Mediocrity - June 1, 2004
Godzilla of the Piano Repertoire - May 10, 2004
Are Pigs Flying Yet? - July 8, 2004
I, Academic Composer - July 13, 2004
Our Classical Bedtime Stories - August 17, 2004
Completion of an Earlier Thought - August 17, 2004
But What Does It Sound Like? - August 29, 2004
Competitions, as Bartok Said, Are for Horses - September 20, 2004
Speak for Yourself - October 10, 2004
Peeping Over the Genre Fences - October 14, 2004
Did Nancarrow Have Days Like This? - October 24, 2004
Criticism, Musical Expression, and Values - November 1, 2004
A New Year's Reflection - December 31, 20042005:
New Music: The Generation Problem - January 28, 2005
The Nancarrow Saga Continues - February 17, 2005
Kittens on the Basketball Court - March 3, 2005
Downtown Music and its Misrepresentations - March 8, 2005
Once More into the 12-Tone Breach - March 20, 2005
Escaping from Classical Music - March 26, 2005
Criticism, Composers, and Objectivity - March 28, 2005
Sources of My Aesthetics - April 17, 2005
Similarity Duly Noted - April 18, 2005
Suppression of Downtown Composers - April 20, 2005
Not at All Obvious - April 24, 2005
Roll Me a Cigarette, Partner, I'm a Postminimalist - April 25, 2005
No Slave to History: George Rochberg, 1918-2005 - May 31, 2005
I Am Not My Music's Fault - June 1, 2005
How to Respond to Critics - July 24, 2005
Habits of Classical Sentimentality Hard to Break - July 25, 2005
Virgil Thomson, In his Own Precise Words and Notes - September 2, 2005
When Does the Post-Prohibitive Age Arrive? - September 9, 2005
Fetishism for the Literal - September 28, 2005
The (Too) Tolerant Generation - October 1, 2005
Rochberg as Post-Prohibitionist - October 8, 2005
From One of the Horse's Mouths - October 18, 2005
One Who Did No Harm to Our Poor Earth - October 19, 2005
Another Old Fart's Grumpy Diatribe - October 25, 2005
Something that Has Always Perplexed Me - December 11, 2005
The View in a 20-Year-Old Mirror - December 24, 2005
The Underrated Predictability of Audiences - December 27, 2005
Our Potemkin Music Scene - December 29, 20052006:
Totalism as a New Rhythmic Paradigm - January 1, 2006
Rules of the Word Game - January 4, 2006
Creativity and Chronology, Rethought - January 9, 2006
Metametrics: Origins - January 14, 2006
Metametrics: Origins 2 - January 22, 2006
Metametrics: Origins 3 - January 31, 2006
Metametrics: A Brief History of 5-against-4 - February 15, 2006
Authorizing Tehillim - February 17, 2006
Selected to Bother - March 6, 2006
A Short History of My Subjectivity - April 1, 2006
Marvin Gann, 1935-2006 - April 13, 2006
Satie, mon Semblable, mon Frere - May 19, 2006
In Which the Blogger Explains Himself - May 20, 2006
Passing of a Gentleman - May 2, 2006
Standing Up for Subjectivity - June 5, 2006
The Hit-and-Run Composer - June 6, 2006
Some Have Versatility Thrust upon Them - June 7, 2006
Low Imprisonment Threshold - June 13, 2006
The Man in the Single Hat - June 14, 2006
American Romanticism: Painting versus Music - July 1, 2006
Music Theory: Case for the Prosecution - July 4, 2006
Teaching the Music that Doesn't Behave - August 31, 2006
Ignoring Progress - September 9, 2006
The Masses Speak, and Wisely - September 10, 2006
Willing One Thing - November 21, 2006
The Siren Call of Conformity - November 24, 2006
"The Lessing Is Miracle" - December 16, 2006
Getcher Dirty Mitts Off my Genre - December 29, 20062007:
Feldman, Painter of Pages - January 02, 2007
The Kleinmeister Factory, Then and Now - January 13, 2007
Why I Am a Postminimalist - January 25, 2007
The Postclassical Catch-22, Caught In the Act - February 13, 2007
The Unapproachable Sacredness of Pop - March 29, 2007
The New-Music Narrative, Interrupted - April 25, 2007
Sand Castles of Knowledge - May 5, 2007
Trois Regards sur Minimalisme - May 6, 2007
Composing "Outside One's Time" - May 10, 2007
How to (Not) Teach Composition - May 11, 2007
They Come in Pairs, Too - May 21, 2007
Totalistically Tenney - May 30, 2007
A Truly Loopy Idea - June 23, 2007
Diversity of Taste Is for Losers - August 10, 2007
Go Gentle, My Upload - August 18, 2007
The Minimalist Invasion - September 3, 2007
Hero of the Subjective - September 23, 2007
Pretending to Be a Stumblebum - October 3, 2007
The Solitary Listener - October 4, 2007
When Geniuses Collide - November 08, 2007
Chance Encounters - November 28, 20072008:
Beam Me Up - January 7, 2008
In Dispraise of Efficiency - January 29, 2008
The Art of the Nonsequitur - February 1, 2008
Answering All Questions - February 7, 2008
Suck It Up - March 10, 2008
Don't Blame Me, It Was Henry Cowell's Idea - March 15, 2008
Expressing the Unself - April 7, 2008
The Maple Leaves Are Always Greener - April 8, 2008
Veni, MIDI, Non Vici - April 15, 2008
Sounding the Solar System - April 20, 2008
The Rock Need not Return to Earth - April 21, 2008
Spot On, but a Little Late - July 21, 2008
The Complexity Issue - July 23, 2008
All Indians Walk Single File - July 27, 2008
What Part of Eno Didn't You Understand - August 2, 2008
Meanwhile, Back in the Real World - August 14, 2008
The Right to Steal Shall Not Be Abridged - September 9, 2008
Compliment from the Grave - September 10, 2008
Cleaning Up a Life - September 23, 2008
Classical Reflections - October 1, 2008
Bleak Inheritance - October 6, 2008
The Op. 111 Club - October 24, 2008
The Trouble with Serialism - November 7, 2008
Composing Generously - November 8, 2008
The Gender Politics of Kickass - November 29, 2008
The Idiot's Guide to PostClassic - December 6, 20082009:
Theorizing NOW - January 4, 2009
My Ives Keynote Address - February 2, 2009
A Problem of Identity - February 15, 2009
Top Six Reasons to Wander in the Wilderness - February 18, 2009
The Symphonic Temperament - February 24, 2009
So I'm Neo-Riemannian: Who Knew? - March 6, 2009
When Students Cancel, You Have Time to Think - April 2, 2009
All Stick, No Carrot - April 2, 2009
What Composers Talk About - April 21, 2009
Words Finally Fail Me - April 23, 2009
Post-Rehearsal Musings - May 26, 2009
The Art of Humiliating Dead Composers - May 27, 2009
Caution, Slow Listener - June 4, 2009
When Morty Met Stefan - June 5, 2009
A Cautionary Example - July 7, 2009
Some Composers Are Not Islands - July 11, 2009
Some People Can't Take a Compliment - July 15, 2009
The Rest Is Falsehood - July 18, 2009
Confessions of a Closet Midtowner - July 26, 2009
Style and Idea - August 1, 2009
The Epistemology of Elitism - August 6, 2009
Great Moments in Music History - August 27, 2009
The Outside-one's-ism Student - September 12, 2009
The Minimalist Alliance - September 10, 20092010:
Aiming My File Cabinets into the Right Students' Ears - January 15, 2010
Getting Off the Assembly Line - January 25, 2001
The Curse of the Recital - February 3, 2010
How to Read - February 6, 2010
Boulez on Music 22 Years Ago - February 28, 2010
The Composer's Guide to History - June 4, 2010
Placating the Postminimalist Performer - June 7, 2010
What "Composing the Music You Hear" Means - June 10, 2010
Success Is Just Another Form of Failure - June 17, 2010
How to Care How It Was Made - June 21, 2010
Critical Obsession - August 29, 2010
How Music Sounds to Children - September 6, 2010
A Couple of Complaints - September 6, 2010
Homophobia Case Against Ives Closed - September 13, 2010
Thought for the Day - October 12, 2010
A Serenade Out of Season - October 20, 2010
The Role of the Idea - November 27, 2010
Chasing My Past with Harpoon and Row Matrix - December 17, 2010
Resisting the Narrative - December 24, 20102011:
Gambling Tips for Performers - January 3, 2011
Language-Spinners and Image-Cutters - January 6, 2011
Vertiginously Relative - June 6, 2011
The Woman behind "The Greatest Man" - October 22, 2011
The Blind Alleys of Criticism - November 28, 20112012:
I Am Ralph Fiennes - January 21, 2012
The Progressive Conservative - April 8, 2012
Literature as a Mirror - July 14, 2012
The Line between A and B - July 21, 2012
Pas Mon Ami Pierrot - July 27, 2012
Birthplace of a Sonata - August 13, 2012
Strange Times: William Duckworth (1943-2012) - September 13, 2012
The Elusive Spinet Piano of Lizzy Alcott - September 23, 20122013:
The Negative Profession - April 15, 2013
Ives, Caught Between Two Caricatures - May 10, 2013
What Writing Has Taught Me about Composition - May 27, 2013
Escape from the Pack of Peers - July 23, 2013
A Louisiana Voice - August 5, 2013
Following Perfect Lives - August 18, 2013
Obligatory Calendrical Observations - August 20, 2013
Opus Triple-Digit - August 29, 2013
Passionate Dinosaur in a Laidback World - September 2, 2013
Confessions of an Old Fart Academic - September 7, 2013
The End of Music History - September 8, 2013
A Teacher Fondly Remembered - September 19, 2013
In Which Exception Is Taken to Various Common Practices - October 17, 2013
Niblock Under the Microscope - October 29, 2013
Great Moments in Teaching - October 31, 2013
Great Moments in Teaching, Part 2 - November 3, 2013
The World Turned Upside Down - November 16, 2013
Snapshots from Academe - November 25, 2013
Reports of My Misbehavior Greatly Exaggerated - November 26, 2013
Unanticipated Claim to Fame - December 30, 20132014:
Where One Looks for It, Evidence Will Be Found - March 10, 2014
A Long-Lost Name Resurfaces - March 18, 2014
The Modernist Populist - May 4, 2014
"The Idea Can Do without Art" - May 26, 2014
One of the Greats: Elodie Lauten (1950-2014) - June 4, 2014
Ives the Primitive as Straw Man - July 17, 2014
The Composer as Cripple - July 22, 2014
Superficial Perceptions Are Permanent - October 11, 2014
The Mission Creep of Peer Review - December 14, 20142015:
Things Composers Can Do - January 14, 2015
New Horizons in Microtonal Neoclassicism - January 21, 2015
The Tough Discipline of the Vernacular - February 15, 2015
Memories of an Early Frost - October 9, 2015
Even the Most Brilliant Musicians Are Mortal - November 8, 2015
A Critical Conspiracy - December 6, 2015
What We've Come To - December 14, 2015
Misreading - December 20, 2015
Not Who We Were - December 21, 2015
The Perennial Fiction of Nature - December 31, 20152016:
Boulez est mort - January 6, 2016
Cribbing from Frankie - January 7, 2016
Thought for Feldman's Birthday - January 12, 2016
"You Can't Do What You Want, but Anything Goes" January 12, 2016
Sound, not Stamp-Collecting - January 14, 2016
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