When writers collide

In his recent BSR essay, "So you want to compose serious music?", Beeri Moalem provided his take on the various musical genres available to a young composer like himself. In reply, our music critic Dan Coren pronounced Beeri's essay "a mishmash of half-baked ideas and some very odd perceptions of music history."

Beeri has promised to respond, which is all well and good— dialogue is what BSR is all about. But Dan Coren's reply demands a response from me as well.

The question in a nutshell

If only by implication, Dan raises a valid question: If, as I have often stated, my purpose in editing BSR is to educate myself, why am I turning for my musical education to a 20-something whippersnapper like Beeri Moalem when I could surround myself exclusively with elder sages like Dan Coren, Tom Purdom and Robert Zaller, who possess multiple degrees and years of life experience to boot?

Or, as I put it to my five-year-old grandson whenever he asks to press the button that automatically opens my garage door: "You? You? What does a small child like you know of the complexities of garage-door operation? Whereas I have spent years studying in the finest garage-door schools in Europe!"

What only the patient knows

An editor like me divides the world into two groups: doctors and patients. The doctor knows why a patient feels sick and what to do about it, but only the patient really knows how he feels. A worker who's just lost her job may not know how to fix the economy, but an economist may not know what it's like to be laid off. It behooves us to listen to both of them.

In effect Coren implies that, in terms of music, he is a doctor and Moalem is a patient. And he's probably right. Nevertheless I find great value in hearing what Moalem has to say. He's a young man who takes music seriously and is trying to make a living by playing it, composing it and writing about it. His previous writings in BSR suggest someone endowed with fresh insights on old subjects and the courage to express himself regardless of others' disapproval.

Such a persistent and dedicated fellow is likely to be composing music long after I'm decomposing. For that reason alone, it behooves me to learn what's going on in his mind.

A lesson from my publisher

Besides, I have a soft sport in my heart for anyone accused of the crime of being too young, because I was in that spot myself once. When I was not yet 24 I was made editor of a daily newspaper in Indiana; at the time, I was the youngest daily newspaper editor in the U.S. My publisher, Hugh Ronald— still one of the wisest people I've ever met— put the issue this way when he offered me the promotion:

"You know, a lot of people in town are going to criticize me for doing this. They'll say you're too young for this job— and they're right." Then he laughed and added, "But that's not your fault."

More than 40 years later, I like to think Hugh's gamble paid off, which may explain why I'm willing to gamble on the young creative Beeri Moalems of the world as well as the older scholarly Dan Corens. And if they can converse with each other, so much the better: I may learn more from their dialogue than I would by listening to either of them separately.â—†


To read responses, click here.
To read Beeri Moalem's reply to Dan Coren, click here.