The extent to which one regards as wishful thinking Schoenberg's claim that his invention of serialism would guarantee the supremacy of German music for another hundred years depends on one's attitude to the whole central 20th-century crisis of tradition. At several times since his death Schoenberg's claim has looked substantially like the truth, though whether it does so now is open to question. Or is it?

One of the most refreshing and absorbing features of the American musical scene is the high proportion of ‘eccentrics’ among composers—Billings, Ives, Cowell, Partch and Cage to name but the most prominent. This can be accounted for, in part, by the proverbial nature of the place as a ‘cultural melting-pot’, forging what often seem to be diametrically-opposed styles and aesthetics together into new idioms which occasionally prove to be something more than the sum of their components. Another factor is the very size of the country: the convenient divisions of East-coast, Mid-west, West-coast, South and so forth can refer not only to different areas of the land mass but also to highly contrasted cultural tendencies. This is not terribly clear from our vantage point, as the (still) disgracefully scanty information which filters across the Atlantic does not allow us to piece the bits together into a satisfactory picture—and thus even the informed listener may be at a loss to place a composer of David Del Tredici's originality into some sort of context.

This discography includes all recordings I have been able to trace containing music by Ginastera. Many of the records are listed unseen, but the most authentic sources have been preferred when there have been conflicts of information. Entries are in alphabetical order by title of the works listed. Cross-references have been provided where parts of works are well-known on their own, or where Spanish and English titles are both in general use. Thus the popular song ‘Triste’ will be found under (5) Canciones Populares Argentinas. (Numbers have been ignored in alphabetization).

On p. 21 Somtow Sucharitkul referred to Wen Loong-hsin as winner of the 1975 Gaudeamus competition. Mr. Loong-hsin in fact gained second prize in that competition—the first prizewinner was the British composer Robert Saxton.

On p.49 Calum MacDonald stated, erroneously, that Andrzej Panufnik had been a pupil of Nadia Boulanger. This inadvertent slip was due to an insufficient recall of the facts: namely that Mr. Panufnik is one of the few contemporary composers who were not her pupils that Mme. Boulanger unreservedly admires.