Today’s Music

Thanks for giving us the Claire Rydell Counterpunch, “Composers Milk a Dead-End Aesthetic” (May 2). I too have wished that “just once I would see a review of new music that expressed even slightly what I felt.” Her comments may be as close as I will ever get.

I scan the concert program to see if there is a “West Coast Premiere.” If so, I rationalize that the orchestra must enjoy a chance to make something other than music, to play in the mud, as it were. I can’t begrudge them that.

Then I eagerly await the review in which the critic will rave about this “Premiere” and sigh about the rest of the program. I want to be responsive to new music, but does it always have to be the worst piece on the program?

ALEXANDER M. LOGAN

Pasadena

According to Rydell, there are 40,000 “registered” composers in this country. Gee, I thought there were at least that many just here in the Valley.

MARK WATTERS

Chatsworth