Maderna om flommen av norske komponister

Den ellers så godmodige komponisten og dirigenten Bruno Maderna kom i et intervju fra 1970 med et heftig utfall mot overfloden av komponister, der han trakk frem som en absurditet at det finnes hundrevis av komponister til og med i Costa Rica, på Galapagosøyene - og i Norge!:


"In each of my concerts, I try to put at least one piece of modern music, but one must be confident that one can perform it well, otherwise the public does not understand it and immediately judges it negatively; one bad performance of contemporary music leaves behind a deeper trace than four good performances. One must also be very harsh, almost cruel: not all of those who write music - even if I know them personally - can be considered 'composers'. There are too many composers nowadays; in each country one can read lists of two or three hundred names: Costa Rican composers, Norwegians, from all parts of the world, it's impossible. If you were to tell me of a Norwegian or Patagonian composer living in Paris, I could believe you, but it is difficult to compose if one has always lived in Barbados. There can be phenomena in folk music, but that is not what we mean by contemporary music. We have known the Galapagos Islands for twenty years, so it becomes necessary to play a piece from there, even if there is nothing in it; these are the jokes of the many Societies for Contemporary Music; pieces are played which are really worth nothing, and in this way not only do we spend a lot of money for nothing, we also spend it against real culture. It may be that Earle Brown or Bruno Maderna write good pieces, but it is not the rule. I would be quite happy if an institution were to offer me money to write a piece, and then when they had seen it, were to say 'I don't like it, so I shan't get it played.' We all know that it isn't so easy to write a good piece! There are thousands of composers in America today; perhaps I am exaggerating but there are really a lot of people who write music; the same in France, but of real composers there is only Boulez and perhaps Gilbert Amy. It is the same in Germany: truly worthwhile pieces are a rarity. So we must be careful: for a good audience, an audience which is inclined positively, we must have only worthwhile music played."