As a student, I attended seminars and master classes given by 11 women who were immensely instrumental in sparking a slow increase in active female composers; the woman-composer question came up, and they each answered it in their own way.
Parallels are drawn between the notational innovations of the late medieval and late modern periods eras in which composers questioned the descriptive, prescriptive, and creative potential of musical inscriptions.
The composer in question is Herbert Howells, respected in his native England.
Orlando di Lasso (1532-94) is the composer in question and the main subject of a concert this week at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall by the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, conducted by Christopher Jackson.
Under him, the orchestra rarely stepped out of its translucent, slightly wiry character as it was later to do for Rafael Kubelík; and Masur's insistence, in more recent interviews, on the right kind of sound for the composer in question seldom worked in practice.
But this should be a stimulating way to hear a new piece and ask the composer some questions about it.
Identity politics has probably played a role in the Eastman renaissance: programming a black, gay composer quells questions about diversity.
A sequence of concerts rather waftily entitled Chronicles - largely, it seems, because the composers in question can be said to have 'chronicled' their turbulent times - continued with Shostakovich's 14th symphony and Prokofiev's second violin concerto, with Schubert and Britten somehow muscling in on the act.
Joyce himself took a keen interest in musical settings of his work, performed some of them himself, and corresponded with many of the composers in question.
After all that preparation, the music has come together.Afterwards, out in a courtyard in the sunshine, the six composers answer questions.
Mr. Miotte and the composers fielded questions from John Schaefer, the WNYC radio host, during the program and mingled with concertgoers at intermission and after the concert.
