Why do we keep insisting there can be such a thing as American classical music, as opposed to classical music that happens to be made in America?

The subdominant is a mystery: no matter how high one goes in the harmonic series, a fundamental pitch will not produce a perfect fourth above the fundamental. Yet, every standard Western scale and church mode except the Lydian contains it.

Theaters are hungry for new musicals, whereas orchestras are already saddled with centuries of masterpieces, with sad results for living composers.