The edifice and the flies, or, the continuing adventures of the worst composers in the world

Abstract

This short article draws on, without mentioning, a very large body of works written over a very long period of time which share a common critique of the musical canon of great works as traditionally conceived. Chief among the musicologists drawn from are Georgina Born and Lydia Goehr (especially The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works). If the reader is familiar with these criticisms, they can safely skip to the final two sections, which explain why I am reinventing this particular musicological wheel at this moment in time. While I believe my framing is reasonably novel, I am under no illusions that the argument being made here is a new one. Nevertheless, the emphasis on community and practice, which I eventually get around to making, feels like a particularly urgent one, and merits a retelling of a story that is by now very old indeed.