[silence] new book by amy beal

[Christopher L Shultis]

Dear Silencers,

I would like to recommend enthusiastically a book I just 
finished reading: "New Music, New Allies: American 
Experimental Music in West Germany from the Zero Hour to 
Reunification" by Amy Beal recently published by the 
University of California Press. This is a GREAT book about 
a great story, how experimental music from the United 
States became what Germans considered as the most 
interesting "American music" and who and what was 
responsible for making that happen. For academics working 
with Cage it is likely that Beal's work is already 
well-known and respected. But this book puts all her 
previous work together in a way that is much more than a 
sum of those parts. When you read everything put together, 
and Beal does so masterfully, you can really finally see 
how it is that composers highly regarded by members of 
this list--the so-called "experimental tradition" writ 
large--were regarded by many in Germany as the most 
important American composers of the last century while, at 
the same time, being remarkably uninterested in the 
composers who dominated (especially in academic circles) 
here in the United States. If you ever wondered why 
Germans love Cage and hate Copland (they don't like 
Babbitt very much either), this book will tell you why and 
much, much more.

For academics the book is essential but for the general 
reader I would also highly recommend it. If you're 
interested in experimental music this is the story about 
how most of it was funded, supported, performed, 
recorded--all in West Germany between 1945-1990. It's a 
great story superbly told. I cannot recommend it highly 
enough.

chris shultis
university of new mexico