SAXOPHOBIA

Mark Swed’s admiring comments about John Coltrane and Charlie Parker go a long way toward explaining his taste in classical music (“It’s Bird, It’s Trane, It’s Saxophone,” July 5).

In my gray-haired opinion, these saxophonists did more to destroy jazz than anyone else, transforming it from a deservedly popular music form into something that only a tiny minority of musicians and intelligentsia can bear to listen to. In ugliness of sound, it is surpassed only by Swed’s favorite classical composers. As far as I’m concerned, any six consecutive notes by Mozart are greater than the combined output of all the 20th century composers I’ve heard.

ROBERT M. BECKETT

Fountain Valley

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Mark Swed’s article on the saxophone was of great interest but lacking a list of the beautiful music written for the instrument by many early and modern composers.

Here is a list I have personally performed as an “extra” player with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and with smaller chamber groups throughout the years:

“Symphonia Domestica” by Richard Strauss; “The Wooden Prince” by Bela Bartok; “Sinfonia da Requiem” by Benjamin Britten; “Facade” by William Walton; “La Creation du Monde” by Darius Milhaud; “Joan of Arc at the Stake” by Arthur Honegger; Concertino da Camera by Jacques Ibert; Concertino by Eugene Bozza.

ANDREAS G. KOSTELAS

San Pedro