Musings: The Musical Worlds of Gunther Schuller

Composer, conductor, French horn player, publisher, broadcaster and former president of the New England Conservatory of Music, Schuller is a learned authority on jazz and one of the world's best writers on music. Introduced by a formidable pundit, this collection of Schuller's writings brings together pieces on Duke Ellington, Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Lee Konitz, Sarah Vaughan and the third stream, reflections on the performance of new music (including his own opera The Visitation), esthetic and educational ideals, and objectivity and subjectivity in the arts. In "The State of American Orchestras," he typically castigates artists, musicians and conductors who "want instant fame, instant careers, instant success, without putting in the time and effort that such results require." Criticism for discerning readers. January 30