The lost generation of composer sages


News of the tragically early death of John Tavener is followed by an email from John McLaughlin Williams telling me that the neo-romantic composer Arnold Rosner, seen above, has passed away age 68. Rosner was of Jewish descent and lived on the East Coast of the States where his prolific output included operas, symphonies and string quartets. In 2006 John McLaughlin Williams recorded his Symphony No. 5 Missa sine Cantoribus super Salve Regina (Mass without Voices on the Salve Regina cantus firmus) for Naxos. That lamentably overlooked symphony, which is dedicated to 1972 US presidential candidate George McGovern, featured in a 2008 post. When asked why a Jewish composer wrote neo-Christian works Rosner replied "In the last analysis, my answer - if not too glib - is: Music is my Religion". Arnold Rosner is part of a lost generation of composer sages whose talents have been buried by venal forces. Let us hope their time will come.

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Comments

JMW said…
Rosner was a true original. Won't some intrepid company produce his (unstaged) opera The Tragedy of Queen Jane?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLKQM9mFpIc&noredirect=1
10:09 pm
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