Orchestra Fantasy League

 Please don't ask me how long I spent on this and how it distracted me from the rest of my life. I'm still not satisfied with it, but there is one lesson from it that is more important than anything else...

STAY OFF CHATGPT!

Philadelphia Orchestra:

Leopold Stokowski 1912-36

Albert Coates 1936-51

Charles Munch 51-66

Constantin Silvestri 66-81 (ideally)

Franco Ferrara 81-94 (ideally)

Yuri Temirkanov 94-09

Giuseppe Sinopoli 09-19 (ideally)

Tugan Sokhiev 19-

New York Symphony

Otto Klemperer 1945-60

Guido Cantelli 60-84 Bernard Haitink 84-94

James Levine 95-10

Donald Runnicles 10-25

Mirga Grazynte-Tyla 25-

Metropolitan Opera:

Erich Kleiber 33-55

Ferenc Fricsay 55-70 (ideally)

Thomas Schippers 70-85 (ideally)

Gary Bertini 85-2000

Christoph von Dohnanyi 00-10

Kirill Petrenko 10-25

Vladimir Jurowski 25-

Manhattan Opera Company

Fritz Busch 1933-51

Rudolf Kempe 51-66

Colin Davis 66-81

Rudolf Kempe 81-84

Istvan Kertesz 84-96

Donald Runnicles 96-11

Philippe Jordan 11-26

Antonello Manacorda 26-

American Symphony:

Leopold Stokowski 62-72

Michael Tilson Thomas 72-80

Gunther Schuller 80-90

David Robertson 90-03

Marin Alsop 03-18

Teddy Abrams 18-

New York Philharmonic:

Gustav Mahler 09-30 (ideally)

Otto Klemperer 30-45

Jascha Horenstein 45-60

Leonard Bernstein 60-75

Dean Dixon 75-90 (ideally)

Michael Tilson Thomas 90-05

Esa-Pekka Salonen 05-20

Thomas Ades 20--

WQXR Symphony of New York

Felix Weingartner 1933-55 (ideally)

Josef Krips 55-70

Carlos Kleiber 70-80 (ideally)

Nikolaus Harnoncourt 80-95

Claudio Abbado 95-05

Ivan Fischer 05-20

Manfred Honeck 20-

New York City Opera

Victor de Sabata 33-45

Franco Ferrara 45-68

Giuseppe Patane 68-83 (ideally)

Riccardo Muti 83-98

Daniele Gatti 89-2013

Gianandrea Noseda 13-28

Michele Mariotti 28-

Brooklyn Philharmonic:

Walter Hendl 55-80

Dennis Russell Davies 80-95

Oliver Knussen 95-2005

Gil Rose 2005-2020

Tito Munoz 2020-

New York Philharmonic:

Arturo Toscanini 37-54

Erich Kleiber 55-70 (ideally)

Ferenc Fricsay 70-79 (ideally)

Michael Gielen 79-89

Charles Mackerras 89-99

David Zinman 99-2014

Riccardo Chailly 14-24

Kirill Petrenko 2025-

Boston Symphony:

Serge Koussevitzky 1924-49

Dmitri Mitropoulos 49-64 (ideally)

Jascha Horenstein 64-79 (ideally)

Ferenc Fricsay 79-89 (ideally)

Michael Gielen 89-2004

Simon Rattle 2004-2019

Jonathan Nott 2019-

WCRB Symphony of Boston (Formerly DAR Symphony)

Felix Weingartner 1918-33

William Steinberg 33-45

Gunter Wand 45-65

Kurt Sanderling 65-80

Rudolf Kempe 80-90 (ideally)

Wolfgang Sawallisch 90-05

Michael Schonwandt 05-20

Markus Poschner 20-

Los Angeles Philharmonic:

Leopold Stokowski 1936-62

Andre Previn 62-77

Lorin Maazel 77-92

Esa-Pekka Salonen 92-2005

Gustavo Dudamel 05-20

Joana Mallwitz 20-

ABC Virtuosi of Burbank:

Paul Paray 1928-48

Yevgeny Mravinsky 48-63

Georg Solti 63-78

Zubin Mehta 79-94

Lorin Maazel 94-2009

Valery Gergiev 09-19

Gustavo Dudamel 19-

Los Angeles Opera:

Alexander Smallens 1928-49

Alfred Newman 49-64

Zubin Mehta 64-79

Thomas Schippers 79-94

John Mauceri 94-2009

Kent Nagano 09-24

John Wilson 24-

San Francisco Opera:

Alexander von Zemlinsky 1933-48

Hans Rosbaud 1948-63

Bruno Maderna 63-78

Hans Zender 78-93

Sylvain Cambreling 93-08

Susanna Malkki 08-23

Barbara Hannigan 23-

San Jose Symphony:

Gunther Schuller 75-90

Pierre Boulez 90-2005

Ingo Metzmacher 05-23

Susanna Malkki 23-

San Francisco Symphony:

Eugene Goosens 30-50

Ernest Bour 50-65

Lukas Foss 65-80

Michael Tilson Thomas 80-90

Kent Nagano 90-2005

Oliver Knussen 2005-20 (ideally)

Jorg Widmann 20-

Pacific Symphony of Oakland

Lukas Foss 50-65

Gunther Schuller 65-80

David Zinman 80-95

Dennis Russell Davies 95-10

Joann Falletta 10-25

Alan Gilbert 25-

WPA Symphony of Berkeley:

Hermann Scherchen 1945-60

Rene Leibowitz 60-75

Herbert Kegel 75-90

Heinz Holliger 90-05

Markus Stenz 05-20

Maxime Pascal 20-

San Diego Symphony:

Pierre Monteux: 1919-35 Vaclav Talich 35-45 Ferenc Fricsay 45-55 Bruno Walter 55-60 (ideally) Paul Kletzki 60-75 (ideally) Eduard van Beinum 75-85 (ideally) Rafael Kubelik 85-95 (ideally) Armin Jordan 95-2010 (ideally) Eliahu Inbal 10-20 Markus Stenz 20-

Cleveland Orchestra:

George Szell 46-69

Istvan Kertesz 69-84

Christoph von Dohnanyi 84-99

Claudio Abbado 99-2014 (ideally)

Osmo Vanska 14-29

Hannu Lintu 29-

Lyric Opera Chicago

Josef Krips 39-54

Herbert von Karajan 54-69

James Levine 70-95

James Conlon 95-10

Antonio Pappano 10-25

Speranza Scapucci 25-

WFMT Orchestra of Chicago:

Fritz Reiner 42-62

Igor Markevitch 62-77

Kirill Kondrashin 78-93

Lorin Maazel 92-2007

Vladimir Jurowski 07-22

Cristian Macelaru 22-

Chicago Symphony

Fritz Steinbach 1918-33

Eugen Jochum 1933-51

Fritz Busch 51-66

Rafael Kubelik 66-81

Gunter Wand 81-96

Istvan Kertesz 96-11

Adam Fischer 11-26

Philippe Jordan 26-

NPR Symphony of America:

Howard Hanson 33-58

Dean Dixon 58-73

Kenneth Schermerhorn 73-88

Leonard Slatkin 88-2003

David Robertson 03-18

Robert Spano 18-

IBM Symphony of Raleigh

Antal Dorati 38-68

Karel Ancerl 68-83

Gerd Albrecht 83-98

Charles Mackerras 98-13 (ideally)

Hannu Lintu 13-28

Krzystopf Urbanski 28-

Minneapolis Symphony:

Paul Kletzki 36-60

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski 60-75

Gunther Herbig 75-90

Klaus Tennstedt 90-2005 (ideally)

Alexander Vedernikov 05-20 (ideally)

John Storgards 20-

MPR Symphony of St. Paul

Bruno Walter 1933-48

Rafael Kubelik 48-64

William Steinberg 64-79

Colin Davis 79-94

Bernard Haitink 94-09

Mariss Jansons 09-24 (ideally)

Jakub Hrusa 24-

Washington Philharmonic:

Leo Blech 1937-53

Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt 53-68

Christoph von Dohnanyi 68-83

Kurt Masur 83-98

Herbert Blomstedt 98-08

Sakari Oramo 08-23

Paavo Jarvi 23-

New Orleans Philharmonic

Pierre Monteux 1935-52

Carlo Maria Giulini 52-67

Georges Pretre 67-82

Ataulfo Argenta 82-97 (ideally)

Antonio Pappano 97-2010

Alain Altinoglu 10-25

Daniele Rustioni 25-

Austin Symphony:

James de Priest 1985-2000

David Robertson 00-20

Esa-Pekka Salonen 20-

Charlotte Symphony:

Jorge Mester 1975-95

James Conlon 95-10

Leonard Slatkin 10-25

Marin Alsop 25-

New Jersey Symphony:

Max Rudolf 33-85

George Cleve 85-00

Hans Graf 00-15

Christoph Konigs 15-30

Detroit Symphony:

Paul Paray: 48-63

Ataulfo Argenta 63-78 (ideally...)

Michel Plasson 78-93

Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos 93-08

Juanjo Mena 08-23

Andres Orozco-Estrada 23-

WPR Symphony of Madison

Vaclav Talich 1943-61

Charles Mackerras 62-77

Libor Pesek 77-92

Istvan Kertesz 96-2011 (ideally)

Gerd Albrecht 11-21 (ideally)

Tomas Netopil 21-

Kansas City Symphony:

Gabriel Pierne 1925-37

Roger Desoirmiere 37-52

Karel Sejna 52-67

Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt 67-82 (ideally)

Ivan Fischer 82-97

Charles Mackerras 97-12

Markus Poschner 12-27

Dallas Symphony:

Eugene Ormandy 31-60

Jean Martinon 60-75

Andre Previn 77-92

Lorin Maazel 92-2007

Charles Dutoit 07-22

Stephane Deneve 22-

Colorado Symphony

Wilhelm Furtwangler 1922-45

Hermann Abendroth 45-60

Eugen Jochum 60-75 (ideally)

Joseph Keilberth 75-90 (ideally)

Daniel Barenboim 90-2005

Christian Thielemann 05-20

Andris Nelsons 20-

The Concert Artists of Utah:

Bruno Walter 1918-33

John Barbirolli 33-48

Carlo Maria Giulini 48-63

William Steinberg 63-78

Wolfgang Sawallisch 78-93

Antonio Pappano 93-2008

Andrew Davis 08-23

Mark Wigglesworth 23-

Calgary Philharmonic:

Enrique Jorda 1960-80

Mario Bernardi 80-95

Kenneth Schermerhorn 95-10

Kazuyoshi Akiyama 10-20

David Afkham 20-

Houston Symphony:

Maurice Abravanel 1946-81

Neeme Jarvi 81-96

Gennadi Rozhdestvensky 96-11

Jose Serebrier 11-21

Robert Trevino 2026-

San Antonio Symphony:

Jose Iturbi 1960-75

Luis Herrara de la Fuente 75-90

John Neschling 90-05

Andres Orozco-Estrada 05-20

Domingo Hindoyan 20-

Phoenix Sympohny:

Henry Lewis 1970-85

Enrique Batiz 85-00

Jorge Mester 00-15

Carlos Miguel Prieto 15-

Miami Philharmonic:

Izler Solomon 55-70

Enrique Batiz 70-85

Jesus Lopez-Cobos 85-00

Eduardo Mata 00-15 (ideally)

Gustavo Gimeno 15-

OPR Symphony of Portland:

George Schneevoigt 1933-45

Tauno Hannikainen 45-60

Sixten Ehrling 60-75

Paavo Berglund 75-90

James de Priest 90-05

Thomas Dausgaard 05-20

Kristiina Poska 20-

Las Vegas Philharmonic:

Anatole Fistoulari 1945-60

Enrique Jorda 1960-75

Carlos Paita 75-90

Ole Schmidt 90-2005

Frank Shipway 05-20 (ideally)

Han-Na Chang 20-

Vancouver Symphony:

Vladimir Golschmann 31-58

Paul van Kempen 58-68 (ideally)

Walter Susskind 68-83 (ideally)

Jean Martinon 83-93 (ideally)

Edo de Waart 93-2008

Francois-Xavier Roth 08-23

Pablo Heras-Casado 23-

Cincinnati Symphony:

Volkmar Andreae 1933-45

William Steinberg 1945-60

Eduard van Beinum 60-75 (ideally)

Peter Maag 75-90

Armin Jordan 90-05 (ideally)

Erich Bergel 05-15 (ideally)

Gabor Takacs-Nagy 15-

Montreal Symphony:

Ernest Ansermet 1923-33

Desire Defauw 33-45

Eduard Flipse 45-60

Sergiu Celibiache 60-75

Seiji Ozawa 75-90

Charles Dutoit 90-05

Michel Plasson05-15

Yannick Nezet-Seguin 15-

Toronto Symphony:

Frantisek Stupka 33-51

Ionel Perlea 51-66

Joseph Keilberth 66-81 (ideally)

Mariss Jansons 81-96

Colin Davis 96-06

Semyon Bychkov 06-17

Juraj Valcuha 17-

Pittsburgh Symphony:

Jascha Horenstein 1931-45

Lovro von Matacic 45-60

Constantin Silvestri 60-66

Klaus Tennstedt 66-75

Jerzy Semkow 75-90

Eliahu Inbal 90-05

Manfred Honeck 05-20

Petr Popelka 20-

IPR Symphony of Indiannapolis:

Eduard van Beinum: 45-60

Karel Sejna 60-75

Armin Jordan 75-90

Jean Fournet 90-2005 (ideally)

Mario Venzago 05-20

Michel Schonwandt 20-

Milwaukee Symphhony:

Carl Schuricht 1946-66

Herbert Blomstedt 66-81

Klaus Tennstedt 81-89

Zdenek Kosler 89-04

Adam Fischer 04-11

Yakov Kreizberg 11-26 (ideally)

Tomas Hanus 26-

Rochester Philharmonic:

Hans Swarowsky 1937-75

Ilya Musin 75-85

Jorma Panula 85-00

Otto Werner-Mueller 00-15

Kenneth Kiesler 15-

Atlanta Symphony:

Robert Shaw 69-88

Andrew Davis 88-03

John Nelson 03-18

Paul McCreesh 18-

Nashville Symphony:

Vittorio Gui 1933-48

Franco Ferrara 48-53

Charles Groves 53-63

Georges Pretre 63-78

Andrew Davis 78-88

Peter Maag 88-2003 (ideally)

Mark Elder 03-18

Robin Ticciati 18-

Baltimore Symphony:

Dmitri Mitropoulos 30-45

Victor de Sabata 45-60 (ideally)

Lovro von Matacic 60-75

Alexander Gibson 75-90

Yevgeny Svetlanov 90-05 (ideally)

Tugan Sokhiev 05-20

Rafael Payare 20-

Buffalo Philharmonic:

Artur Rodzinski 1933-58

Janos Ferencsik 58-73

Arvid Jansons 73-88

Jan Krenz 88-03

Andrey Boreyko 03-18

Antoni Wit 18-28

Giedre Sletyke 28-

Alaska Philharmonic:

Issay Dobrowen 1922-41

Nikolai Malko 41-56

Efrem Kurtz 56-71

Yuri Ahronovich 71-86

Vladimir Delman 86-2001 (ideally)

Vasily Sinaisky 01-16

Alexander Lazerev 16-26

Oksana Lyniv 26-

St. Louis Symphony:

Fritz Reiner 34-42

Karl Bohm 45-60

Ferdinand Leitner 60-75

Horst Stein 75-90

Otmar Suitner 90-2000

Michael Schonwandt 00-15

Simone Young 15-30

San Diego Symphony:

Louis Fremaux 60-82

David Atherton 82-97

Jahja Ling 97-12

Eiji Oue 12-27

Diego Matheuz 27-

Calgary Philharmonic:

Enrique Jorda 1960-80

Mario Bernardi 80-95

Kenneth Schermerhorn 95-2010

Kazuyoshi Akiyama 10-20

David Afkham 20-

Edmonton Symphony:

Desire Defauw 1950-60 (ideally)

Max Goberman 60-75 (ideally)

Sixten Ehrling 75-90

James de Priest 90-2005

Santa Fe Festival Orchestra

Mahler 1930-45

Talich 45-55

Fricsay 55-65 (ideally)

Celibidache 65-75

Matacic 75-85

Semkow 85-95

Harnoncourt 95-05

I. Fischer 05-15

A. Fischer 15-25

Honeck 25-

Mardi Gras Festival Orchestra

Pierre Monteux 1919-1942

Vaclav Talich 42-57

Eduard van Beinum 57-72 (ideally)

Rafael Kubelik 72-87

Claudio Abbado 87-02

Ivan Fischer 02-17

Simon Rattle 17-

Carmel-by-the-Sea Opera Festival

Arturo Toscanini 1933-54

Guido Cantelli 55-64 (ideally)

Franco Ferrara 65-74 (ideally)

Carlo Maria Giulini 75-89

Thomas Schippers 90-04 (ideally)

James Levine 05-14 ('ideally')

Riccardo Muti 2015-24

Riccardo Chailly 2025-

Bayreuth West: American Festival of Music Drama: (also performs modern works and concerts.)

Richard Wagner: 1888-1903 (ideally)

Anton Seidl: 03-18 (ideally)

Arturo Toscanini and Gustav Mahler18-33 (Mahler leaves in 29 - Furtwangler takes over in 30)

Wilhelm Furtwangler and Victor de Sabata 30-45

Erich Kleiber and Fritz Busch 45-60 (ideally)

Rudolf Kempe and Guido Cantelli 60-75 (Cantelli comes in 65)

Klaus Tennstedt, Carlos Kleiber and Wolfgang Sawallisch 75-90

Daniel Barenboim and Zubin Mehta 90-2005

Christian Thielemann and Daniele Gatti 05-20

Kirill Petrenko and Antonio Pappano 20-

The War of the Nine Kings: Beginning

 It begins with the voice. Most of the time the voice communicates to him in a rumbling bass, as though the ground itself emits gales of sound through earthquake, but occasionally the voice is a child's, or an animal's, or a tree rustle or water babble if we're not in the Jordan Valley, occasionally it's not even a voice, just a feeling, an intuition, through which he knows the wind of Yahweh has passed through. Often it's accompanied by images. Sometimes the images are horrific and Abram begs for them to cease, but they continue until such time as our Lord and King bursts through the horror like a torn piece of giant paper and announces his will, at which point the spirit settles, Abram's nerves calm, and for a few hours he lays about in twilight consciousness. 

Once he wakes up, the real work begins. What follows is a farce of obedience: no matter how difficult, no matter how absurd, we are all at Abram's mercy, and we will accomplish the impossible tasks he's set out for us. Are the projects truly Yahweh's will? I choose to believe they are, even if the rational voice in me tells me these are delusions of a mind intoxicated by the idea of chosenness, but had Abram not set out for these projects, would Canaan have ever been the same? We've built altars in every valley and wadi, we've gathered stones and cast stones away, we've built wooden shelters in terrain where there is no wood, we've set fire to cities only to build them again from the ground, we've declared war on our friends and made peace with our foes, it is all the voice, all which the voice dictates, and even my husband himself is powerless before it, and our ministrations only cease when the voice speaks again, for he speaks very often. 

Abram bar-Terakh is my partner, my dodi, my husband joined in something we call holy matrimony, but it has very little matrimonious about it--this marriage was not my doing. People say we're half-siblings, but that's not quite true. I was the wife of Haran before he died, when Haran died, I became the daughter of Terakh--a sort of daughter-in-law-in-law, and he wasted no time giving me over to his weird son: the one with alternative beliefs, the drug pusher, the manic we charitably call 'ecstatic', the 'prophet'... whatever that is... so consumed by odd ideas that he couldn't even focus on a single task of running a store on which our livelihood depended on him. Working for him and minding the store during his hashish hours was Amraphel, the future Sumerian Emperor Hammurabi VI! The first elected emperor in Sumerian history, the general who defeated ten thousand Amorites and five thousand Hurrain at Kush; but by then Abram had long since ceased relations. The problem? Amraphel finally told Terakh that Abram was smoking hash in the office. Abram got so angry he broke half the statues in the store and still insisted Amraphel get fired. The one man who could have made Abram a success beyond all these blessings from Yahweh is apparently still Abram's lifelong enemy. 

All the same, he's my husband, my Eesh, my Abe. We've shared beds and cold and hunger, we started homeless and now we're listed among the 20 richest millionaires in Canaan. We have thousands on our payroll and an entire tribe follows my husband like he's a cult leader. He's not the greatest lover (and I've had a few...), but he's given me adventures past all the women in Ur. He's risked our lives so many times, but only a man so full of life could be so cheap with it. 

Do I love him? I guess, does anybody really love their husband? But we've had a life together, and in certain ways, it's been a fun life. My husband is this unique mixture of madman, priest, entrepreneur, general, professional grudge holder, and a man who feels joy and suffering like no one I've ever met. Not a single person's ever met him and come away not thinking 'There is only one Abram.'

War of the Nine Kings: Prelude - Beginning

  Dossier from the Desk of Eliezer-ben-Eliezer 

Eastern Powers

Deesh. 

Shinarites: alias Sumerians. 

King: Amraphel: alias Hammurabi VI

Capital: Ur. Our place of origin. 

Other major cities: Uruk, Lagash, Nippur, Eridu

Gods: Chaotic Neutral 

An empire spanning Southern Mesopotamia, once the glory of the world in literature, culture, technology, finance and jurisprudence, Abram-bar-Terakh proved astonishingly prescient in leaving at what now appears to be a golden age for Sumeria, perhaps a dreadfully final golden age. Our ancestral homeland currently lies in a state of terrible decline thought unthinkable a mere generation ago, riven by fiscal debt and hyperpartisanship: the rural working class clash with urban middle class and poor, made more partisan because of urban aristocracy siding with rural farmers and craftsmen, for whose labor they underpay. In addition to getting caught in global warfare (war for which their hubris may be the cause) Sumeria is in grave danger of collapse, civil war, and financial meltdown. The famed Sumerian work ethic has deserted them, and in its place arrives a civilization decadent and declined, rulers corrupt, government hyperpartisan, work ethic subsumed by radical ideology extoling the demerits of hard labor. While the Sumerian government used to respond to floods and droughts with astonishing speed and efficacy, the government today is ruled by an ideology of non-interference, against which there is much clamor for revolution. 

King Hamurrabi VI, formerly Amraphel, was once a friend of Abram's who worked in Terakh's idol store and told Terakh of Abram's consorting with the Habirus. Abram bore Amraphel a terrible grudge, but the former Amraphel has paid Abram's Elamite tribute for eleven of these last twelve years. The nature of current relations between Abram and King Hammurabi is a secret known only to our master and the homeland's king. We prevail, yet again, upon our master to tell us the standing of things between Abram-bar-Terakh and the Sumerian Emperor. 

Alliance Reliability: Extraordinarily, low. 

Min. 

Elamites: 

King: Khederla'omer

Capital: Shushan 

Religion: Hermetic 

A rising empire east of Mesopotamia, in the southwest of a region now called Persia. They speak an Indo-European language not unlike both Sumerian and Habiru. Even Sumeria views them as ferociously intelligent. But whereas Sumeria and Ur is cultured, profligate and individuated to point of decadence, Elam is utterly thrifty, industrious, community focused, and future minded. The Sumerians have spent the last generation in a delicate dance of diplomacy with Elam involving multiple treaties and massive financial involvement. So much so that Elam makes an enormous amount of the raw material consumed by Sumer. Elam can be said to be dependent on Sumerian purchasing power for the increase in its standard of living. Sumer can be said to be dependent on Sumer for manufacturing products that are too expensive to make amid Sumerian inflation. 

The great danger is that this rising empire and falling empire may fall into what's commonly called the Enkidian Trap, in which a rising power unintentionally destabilizes a falling power, which results in the widespread destruction of both. There are many empires which would benefit from such an occurrence, just as many who may also be destroyed in the coming melee, but ultimately the effects of such a conflict are so chaotically destructive as to be entirely unpredictable. 

King Khederla'omer is clearly a strategist of a brilliance not seen since Hammurabi I. He has extracted (some would say extorted) payment from Canaanite kings for twelve years, and in return he provides security. Surprisingly, he has kept his promise, and there has been no civil conflict for the entirety of his rule-by-proxy. However, many Canaanite kings are consulting with the Sumerian ambassador in what they think is secret. They currently negotiate a strategy to rid themselves of their dues to Elam while paying a one-time tribute to Sumeria in raw material as payment for their assistance. 

It is the opinion of this analyst that this collusion is doomed from its outset, and any king who crosses Khederla'omer will quickly be deposed. 

Alliance Reliability: Surprisingly High

Esh. 

Amorites: 

Habitats: Nomad

Conquests: Prolific

Settlements: Prolific

Government: Confederate Republic 

Gods: Chaotic Good

A stunningly adaptable people: capable of farming, shepherding, soldiering and financial trading. They have a deceptively sophisticated form of government. For centuries other empires habitually dismiss them as of lower intelligence and lower sophistication, they were thought a parasite nation who occupy the houses and technologies of the conquered, yet they continually win whatever wars they elect to fight. 

Rumors abound that the Amorites began as a Habiru splinter group, but there is no proof as such. Yet as they traversed the Levant they have proven astoundingly adaptive with achievements that at times dwarf their neighbors. 

Alliance Reliability: Quixotic and Mercurial

Limmu. 

Hurrians. 

Habitats: Nomad

Linguistic Origin: Unknown

Ruling Class: Mitanni

Ruling Class Language: Indo-European

Primary Occupation: Warriors

Military Advantage: Horsing Skill

King: Ariokh 

Gods: Lawful Neutral 

A Turkic mercenary people said to inhabit a sometime empire in the corner border between Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Syria and Armenia. A race of cavalry soldiers, expert in riding, breeding, training and cavalry tactics. Occasionally seen in other parts as traders and guides, the Hurrain are said to hear of conflicts and immediately embark to participate. Upon arrival they immediately offer the losing side assistance for profit. If profit is not paid immediately, they offer assistance to the winning side. 

Alliance Reliability: Medium Low

Western Powers

Ia. 

Canaanite City States 

Government: Confederation

Languages: Varied

Gods: Lawful Good

Kings: Bera and Bisha are the ones we negotiate with

Capital: Sodom 

The independent city states of Canaan are in danger of falling into the Elamite empire. Contrary to Yahweh's divine information to Abram, the Canaanites are surprisingly wealthy, or at least they were until the Elamites extracted tribute. Yet they themselves can be said to extract tribute because all goods that move from continent to continent are taxed by moving through Canaanite land. Egypt must pay to do business in in Sumeria, Sumeria must pay to do business in Arabia, Arabia must pay to do business in Anatolia, all must pay merely to do business in Canaan, and the best ports are Canaanite so in order to move goods to Yevan and Italia, many choose to leave from Jaffa, Akko, Ashkelon and Gaza. Elsewhere Canaanites can inevitably be seen as merchants and traders, or driving caravans from empire to empire. Canaan has no wish to conquer, merely to extract tribute, and that is precisely the nature of their conflict with Elam. Elam wishes to be the sole beneficiary of Canaanite remuneration, and consequently the Canaanites have little money left to fund their own pursuits, which indulge in all the sophisticated pursuits of elsewhere, brought to Canaan and some would say refined (others would say vulgarized). 

Ur may be the world's capital, boasting a culture all too worthy of a capital, but Sodom (and its suburb Gemorah) is the world's cultural capital, where passes through all things literate, artistic, musical and gastronomic (and erotic). It is a city of the ultimate liberality, where all lifestyles are welcome, all progress celebrated, and all sentiments of conservation and reaction unwelcomely viewed as backward. Yet it is so expensive that only the wealthy and upper middle class may dwell within it. It sits upon a quaternary fault near the Dead Sea that gives it an utterly unique topography and climate. Its appearance is astonishingly well maintained, seemingly every building painted a hundred colors, and while there is much talk of homeless within it, one could be forgiven for thinking it the wealthiest, most prosperous city in the world. 

In the event of a military strike, Sodom will be the first site in Canaan to reap the whirlwind. 

Alliance Reliability: Immaterial, we are bound together. 

Ash.

Habirus: (alias: Apiru, Hyksos, Shepherd Kings) 

Homeland: Stateless

Orientation: Bedouin

Religion: Borderline Monotheist 

King: Abram?

God: Chaotic Evil

Referred to derogatorily as 'the shepherd kings' because they cross the world with nothing but their cattle, they are often thought the dregs of the earth: hated by every major civilization as mercenaries, thieves, peasants and rebels. Habirus seem to turn up in every state's record as fugitive convicts, army deserters, escaped slaves, political agitators, yet our master saw fit to consort with them, to break bread with them, to fornicate with them, to promote a few from slave to servant, to even adopt three Habirus into the household. 

However unacceptable the rest of the household finds the generosity of his treatment, Abram has been rewarded by Habirus with unconditional loyalty. They have no god but Set, yet Abram seems to be worshipped by them as something akin to a god. In return for settlement upon Abram's land, they have bound all their possessions into Abram's keeping. This race of thieves has only committed only four recorded acts of theft upon anyone on our land. They have worked as shepherds, farmers, craftsmen and soldiers with the ultimate industry. 

Alliance Reliability: Stunningly, Absolute. 

Umun. 

Philistines: (alias: 'The Sea Peoples')

Cities: Ashdod, Ekron, Gat, Ashkelon and Gaza are mixed Philistine and Canaanite

King: Tidal 

The Philistines are European outliers, some would say 'occupiers' of this Canaanite land. They claim they are originally from Canaan, but they carry with them the art, architecture, complexion and linguistic structure of Europe. They are a mix of Greek, Turkic, Anatolian, and no doubt there is some Canaanite in there too somewhere. They are called people of the sea because they arrived from the sea, but it is to the sea they must be tossed back. They arrived just one century ago as refugees from the Trojan War. They may well be the descendants of the remaining Trojans, though they could just as easily be Mycenean. Who knows with those people? All we know is that they must be eliminated. Their numbers grow and grow, and they are an ongoing threat we must deal unless we want our land to be permanently occupied by the West. 

Usu. 

Egypt: 

No descriptor needed. 

Illimu.

Desert Tribal Alliance: 

Orientation: Bedouin

Ethnicities: Midianite, Edomite, Moabite, Ammonite, other tribes unknown as they are Arabian

Religion: Monotheist

God: Lawful Good

King: Zo'ar 

For the moment, a closed society. The Midianites, Edomites, Moabites and Ammonites have continued presence in Canaan, but many of them simply wander the Arabian desert, setting up camp in indeterminate locations. Nobody knows anything of their whereabouts until they appear in the Negev en masse like a mass vacation during which they trade and party, perhaps reuniting with relatives, perhaps worshipping a god that only can be properly worshipped here, and then they go home and we don't hear from them for another seven or ten years. There are many records of these tribes committing acts of thievery and raids, yet in times of drought they have always been extremely forthcoming and generous with other tribes. 

Alliance Reliability: Utterly Unknown

Conflict: The Canaanite tribes wish to extract themselves from payment. 

Tales of Disturbed Creation: War of the Nine Kings - Prelude - Beginning

 Dossier from the Desk of Eliezer-ben-Eliezer 

Side 1. Eastern Powers

Deesh. 

Shinarites: alias Sumerians. 

King: Amraphel: alias Hammurabi VI

Capital: Ur. Our place of origin. 

Other major cities: Uruk, Lagash, Nippur, Eridu

Gods: Chaotic Neutral 

An empire spanning Southern Mesopotamia, once the glory of the world in literature, culture, technology, finance and jurisprudence, Abram-bar-Terakh proved astonishingly prescient in leaving at what now appears to be a golden age for Sumeria, perhaps a dreadfully final golden age. Our ancestral homeland currently lies in a state of terrible decline thought unthinkable a mere generation ago, riven by fiscal debt and hyperpartisanship: the rural working class clash with urban middle class and poor, made more partisan because of urban aristocracy siding with rural farmers and craftsmen, for whose labor they underpay. In addition to getting caught in global warfare (war for which their hubris may be the cause) Sumeria is in grave danger of collapse, civil war, and financial meltdown. The famed Sumerian work ethic has deserted them, and in its place arrives a civilization decadent and declined, rulers corrupt, government hyperpartisan, work ethic subsumed by radical ideology extoling the demerits of hard labor. While the Sumerian government used to respond to floods and droughts with astonishing speed and efficacy, the government today is ruled by an ideology of non-interference, against which there is much clamor for revolution. 

King Hamurrabi VI, formerly Amraphel, was once a friend of Abram's who worked in Terakh's idol store and told Terakh of Abram's consorting with the Habirus. Abram bore Amraphel a terrible grudge, but the former Amraphel has paid Abram's Elamite tribute for eleven of these last twelve years. The nature of current relations between Abram and King Hammurabi is a secret known only to our master and the homeland's king. We prevail, yet again, upon our master to tell us the standing of things between Abram-bar-Terakh and the Sumerian Emperor. 

Alliance Reliability: Extraordinarily, low. 

Min. 

Elamites: 

King: Khederla'omer

Capital: Shushan 

Religion: Hermetic 

A rising empire east of Mesopotamia, in the southwest of a region now called Persia. They speak an Indo-European language not unlike both Sumerian and Habiru. Even Sumeria views them as ferociously intelligent. But whereas Sumeria and Ur is cultured, profligate and individuated to point of decadence, Elam is utterly thrifty, industrious, community focused, and future minded. The Sumerians have spent the last generation in a delicate dance of diplomacy with Elam involving multiple treaties and massive financial involvement. So much so that Elam makes an enormous amount of the raw material consumed by Sumer. Elam can be said to be dependent on Sumerian purchasing power for the increase in its standard of living. Sumer can be said to be dependent on Sumer for manufacturing products that are too expensive to make amid Sumerian inflation. 

The great danger is that this rising empire and falling empire may fall into what's commonly called the Enkidian Trap, in which a rising power unintentionally destabilizes a falling power, which results in the widespread destruction of both. There are many empires which would benefit from such an occurrence, just as many who may also be destroyed in the coming melee, but ultimately the effects of such a conflict are so chaotically destructive as to be entirely unpredictable. 

King Khederla'omer is clearly a strategist of a brilliance not seen since Hammurabi I. He has extracted (some would say extorted) payment from Canaanite kings for twelve years, and in return he provides security. Surprisingly, he has kept his promise, and there has been no civil conflict for the entirety of his rule-by-proxy. However, many Canaanite kings are consulting with the Sumerian ambassador in what they think is secret. They currently negotiate a strategy to rid themselves of their dues to Elam while paying a one-time tribute to Sumeria in raw material as payment for their assistance. 

It is the opinion of this analyst that this collusion is doomed from its outset, and any king who crosses Khederla'omer will quickly be deposed. 

Alliance Reliability: Surprisingly High

Esh. 

Amorites: 

Habitats: Nomad

Conquests: Prolific

Settlements: Prolific

Government: Constitutional Monarchy 

Gods: Chaotic Good

A stunningly adaptable people: capable of farming, shepherding, soldiering and financial trading. They have a deceptively sophisticated form of government. For centuries other empires habitually dismiss them as of lower intelligence and lower sophistication, they were thought a parasite nation who occupy the houses and technologies of the conquered, yet they continually win whatever wars they elect to fight. 

Rumors abound that the Amorites began as a Habiru splinter group, but there is no proof as such. Yet as they traversed the Levant they have proven astoundingly adaptive with achievements that at times dwarf their neighbors. 

Alliance Reliability: Quixotic and Mercurial

Limmu. 

Hurrians. 

Habitats: Nomad

Linguistic Origin: Unknown

Ruling Class: Mitanni

Ruling Class Language: Indo-European

Primary Occupation: Warriors

Military Advantage: Horsing Skill

Gods: Lawful Neutral 

A Turkic mercenary people said to inhabit a sometime empire in the corner border between Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Syria and Armenia. A race of cavalry soldiers, expert in riding, breeding, training and cavalry tactics. Occasionally seen in other parts as traders and guides, the Hurrain are said to hear of conflicts and immediately embark to participate. Upon arrival they immediately offer the losing side assistance for profit. If profit is not paid immediately, they offer assistance to the winning side. 

Alliance Reliability: Medium Low

Ia. 

Canaanite City States 

Government: Confederation

Languages: Varied

Gods: Lawful Good

Capital: Sodom 

The independent city states of Canaan are in danger of falling into the Elamite empire. Contrary to Yahweh's divine information to Abram, the Canaanites are surprisingly wealthy, or at least they were until the Elamites extracted tribute. Yet they themselves can be said to extract tribute because all goods that move from continent to continent are taxed by moving through Canaanite land. Egypt must pay to do business in in Sumeria, Sumeria must pay to do business in Arabia, Arabia must pay to do business in Anatolia, all must pay merely to do business in Canaan, and the best ports are Canaanite so in order to move goods to Yevan and Italia, many choose to leave from Jaffa, Akko, Ashkelon and Gaza. Elsewhere Canaanites can inevitably be seen as merchants and traders, or driving caravans from empire to empire. Canaan has no wish to conquer, merely to extract tribute, and that is precisely the nature of their conflict with Elam. Elam wishes to be the sole beneficiary of Canaanite remuneration, and consequently the Canaanites have little money left to fund their own pursuits, which indulge in all the sophisticated pursuits of elsewhere, brought to Canaan and some would say refined (others would say vulgarized). 

Ur may be the world's capital, boasting a culture all too worthy of a capital, but Sodom (and its suburb Gemorah) is the world's cultural capital, where passes through all things literate, artistic, musical and gastronomic (and erotic). It is a city of the ultimate liberality, where all lifestyles are welcome, all progress celebrated, and all sentiments of conservation and reaction unwelcomely viewed as backward. Yet it is so expensive that only the wealthy and upper middle class may dwell within it. It sits upon a quaternary fault near the Dead Sea that gives it an utterly unique topography and climate. Its appearance is astonishingly well maintained, seemingly every building painted a hundred colors, and while there is much talk of homeless within it, one could be forgiven for thinking it the wealthiest, most prosperous city in the world. 

In the event of a military strike, Sodom will be the first site in Canaan to reap the whirlwind. 

Alliance Reliability: Immaterial, we are bound together. 

Ash.

Habirus: (alias: Apiru, Hyksos, Shepherd Kings) 

Homeland: Stateless

Orientation: Bedouin

Religion: Borderline Monotheist 

God: Chaotic Evil

Referred to derogatorily as 'the shepherd kings' because they cross the world with nothing but their cattle, they are often thought the dregs of the earth: hated by every major civilization as mercenaries, thieves, peasants and rebels. Habirus seem to turn up in every state's record as fugitive convicts, army deserters, escaped slaves, political agitators, yet our master saw fit to consort with them, to break bread with them, to fornicate with them, to promote a few from slave to servant, to even adopt three Habirus into the household. 

However unacceptable the rest of the household finds the generosity of his treatment, Abram has been rewarded by Habirus with unconditional loyalty. They have no god but Set, yet Abram seems to be worshipped by them as something akin to a god. In return for settlement upon Abram's land, they have bound all their possessions into Abram's keeping. This race of thieves has only committed only four recorded acts of theft upon anyone on our land. They have worked as shepherds, farmers, craftsmen and soldiers with the ultimate industry. 

Alliance Reliability: Stunningly, Absolute. 

Umun. 

Philistines: (alias: 'The Sea Peoples')

Cities: Ashdod, Ekron, Gat, Ashkelon and Gaza are mixed Philistine and Canaanite

The Philistines are European outliers, some would say 'occupiers' of this Canaanite land. They claim they are originally from Canaan, but they carry with them the art, architecture and linguistic structure of Europe. They are a mix of Greek, Turkic, Anatolian, and no doubt there is some Canaanite in there too somewhere. They are called people of the sea because they arrived from the sea, but it is to the sea they must be tossed back. They arrived just one century ago as refugees from the Trojan War. They may well be the descendants of the remaining Trojans, though they could just as easily be Mycenean. Who knows with those people? All we know is that they must be eliminated. Their numbers grow and grow, and they are an ongoing threat we must deal unless we want our land to be permanently occupied by the West. 

Dear Dad #9

You would kill me for this trip. I mean, you would absolutely lay into me for a thousand reasons. Not because of my profligacy, though you'd find an unbelievable amount to criticize there, but my idiocy, my incompetence, my laziness: Missing flights and full price for the new one, going to the ER at the first sign of a little trouble, skipping the concert I organized the whole trip for, being around so many friends who've gone back to chain smoking cigarettes, going back to drinking wine when it's so detrimental to my health (and not just a little, one night was a bottle worth, another day was half a large bottle of prosecco). I resisted the cigarettes completely, but the simple act of being around them pushed my voice down an octave. You might be a little more understanding about leaving my glasses in a lyft, that one I'm down on myself enough for, but you'd definitely be down on me for purchasing a bunch of pairs of reading glasses that aren't perfect when each pair is thirty bucks. 

But this is the sort of trip you'd love: the events, the people watching, the history, the views. It's everything you could want. I'm sorry you were careful with your life. Care to what end? You were the type that would get more out of vacations and tourism than anyone: most people have no idea of the history they tour. They ooh and ah by the gravesides of writers and statesmen they'd never heard of; but by the time you realized what you'd missed, your health slowed down. No one is sorrier than me that you didn't take more vacations but... well... you were cheap. I'm not. You were all too responsible, I'm not. My father is dead and your death taught me that life is all too short. Maybe I'm having my mid-life crisis, but I'm going to have all the adventures you refused yourself. 

I'm heading home right now on a train from New York and it's been twenty days. Twenty days! The longest I've been away from home in four years by a factor of well over two weeks! My own health took a turn for the much worse in your final years, and a few months after your passing I finally found a drug that keeps it mostly OK. I feel like life is just starting over now, and I'll have to be careful to not have a second half that will be as reckless and profligate as the first half was careful, lest the second half turn into a fourth quarter. 

Oh my god: San Francisco. You took J and I to San Francisco in 2009: it was wonderful. Whatever skirmishes we might have had on the trip (I can't remember), you took us to show us what stuff may be lying out there. Maybe it was really for you, maybe you wanted to share memories with your children, but maybe it was to show J all the possibilities that lie out there post-college, and maybe it was to show me that there was as much beauty and glory in the history of America as there is in the Europe I longed to go to for more than three weeks every ten years, but it was a great trip. We saw a David Mamet play, we ate some of America's best (mildly priced) food, and we got thrown out of the Robert Mondavi winery. The scenery everywhere took your breath away be it the windy hills of the city or the glowing sunlight of Napa. A homeless man sang to me a serenade in the street and another one asked J to critique the quality of his mugshot. The moment I was to go into the City Lights Bookstore: spiritual home to Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gregory Korso, and at that moment out stepped David Gergen: press secretary to both Clinton and Reagan. It was as though DC invaded San Fran and I was an unwitting accomplice. 

This time was shorter than the last two: just three days in American paradise. Even the sun in California is different: at all times you can literally see the sunlight. It doesn't just glow, it shines, not in the heavens above, but on the earth right next to you. The only other place I've seen anything like that is Italy. Even at sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit it's strong enough to bore red marks into your exposed skin, yet somehow if you don't have a jacket you freeze to death even on a summer night. Every moment in that city seems like an outdoor party. I was there for the 'Breakers Festival', a costume festival not unlike Mardi Gras, only with more nudity. I probably saw about fifty dongs that Sunday morning, most of them old gays, probably Boomers, trying to recapture their glory days. San Francisco, like everywhere, has gotten a little more puritan, and I doubt there were more than two or three nudists there under fifty. So much has the spirit of San Francisco changed that I even saw a straight couple make out in the Castro! 

Even if San Francisco has changed, I don't understand how a place like that can exist. I've still never seen New Orleans or Charleston, but I have never seen a city in America that beautiful: maybe by a country mile. Even if the homeless are defecating right outside, even if a quart of milk costs a million dollars, every property is so well maintained, every townhouse seems painted a hundred colors, every restaurant has outdoor seating, every park seems to have a perfectly half and half mixture of pine trees and palm trees. It is that precise place in America where temperate meets tropics, and the climate creates a perfect city of a type that may not be seen anywhere else on earth. 

But there's no such thing as 'real perfection', and such perfection can breed a kind of unreality. The spirit of San Francisco may have changed, but it is just as vivid today as in the sixties, and perhaps quite a bit more influential. The world can seem all too explicable when living in circumstances so ideal. On the one hand you have the tech sector, which seems to have crossed overnight from libertarian into authoritarian (as I'm pretty sure I predicted to you), on the other you have the very famous San Franciscan brand of leftist. There's a whole new generation of them now: simultaneously more puritan and decadent than ever: tattoos on three sleeves yet so scared of saying something inappropriate that their very smiles seem to indicate a kind of desperation; more self-righteous than ever, yet simultaneously more terrified. You'd bristle with contempt for all sides: their utopian beliefs, their line item ideologies, the very lack of concern for money which lets them stay in America's most expensive city. There was never a less Californian person than you. The only people in San Francisco you'd have sympathy for are the Asians: who still dress as though America is in the 1950s, the young among whom carry themselves with that very middle class confidence which tells the world that they are the ones who truly run it. White people in San Francisco all have weird ass hair and bad tattoos, and at times they all look a little insecure. The Asians right next to them look happy as clams: hanging out with each other in a country that even in its depleted state is at least more distant from the threat of the Chinese government. 

 I certainly had moments of impatience I did my best to hide from San Francisco and all its mental baggage: be it a friend gone right-wing, one I'd rarely ever seen get heated in twenty five years, who heatedly asserted to me that liberals have controlled the Supreme Court for sixty years (why not seventy=five years then?), or his left friend who asserted to me that Israel is an ethnonationalist state in its very creation and only seemed to get madder with every calm contradiction I tried to make to points even he acknowledged were not particularly informed. Alcohol doesn't help in those situations, but one has the sense that whatever circles one moves in, the Bay Area is so ideologically lock stepped that they forget what it's like to talk with those who disagree with them. Those of us who live among disagreement every day and conscious of our surroundings realize that you have to approach political discourse as though you're walking through a landmine territory, where any footstep can cause a destructive explosion. But in such idyllic surroundings, it's very easy to think you don't have to be careful. 

But I have a certain sympathy with all of them. You try being from my generation and see how you'd take to it. I have the same deep terror of Silicon Valley we all do, but at least they're trying to solve problems, even if it's increasingly the problems they create, in a country where we've given up on solving problems almost entirely. As for the leftists, well, there is something about the intractability of modern America that pushes everybody to extremes: left and right. They think the country lied to them, and they're right. My generation was told there would be jobs, there would be prosperity, that our educations were worth something, that all those years spent prepping for college with extra-curriculars and volunteer work would pay off: then we took out massive student loans we couldn't pay because we all thought we were going to get high paying jobs. Where is all that money? It's all concentrated in 930 billionaires. Anybody who blames millennials for turning left without looking into themselves is doomed to worsen the problem. 

Boomer center-liberals like you chose your prosperity over making society work, so when pragmatists who know how to fix things choose their prosperity over solving society's problems, people inevitably flock to radical solutions. This is the world we now live in. It's sad to see hubristic friends who should know better be so heedless of history, but what can we do? The J Tuckers of the world told us to work hard, because hard work was what worked for you. We're not lazy, we just know that hard work won't be rewarded anymore. 

Nothing is more fragile than beauty, and there is something truly fragile about San Francisco. The very glory of it feels like it's running on borrowed time. Just like how cities as beautiful as old Dresden, old Warsaw, old Tokyo and Rotterdam were bombed to ember (Paris and Prague almost were too), the most beautiful cities in America seem the most threatened: either from war with China like San Francisco and Portland, or from civil conflict like Austin and Nashville, or even rural California. These are places much more dangerous than they look. Not yet, but if life gets still more unstable than it currently seems, it won't be places like Baltimore or Detroit which opponents will look to destroy. Why bomb something that already looks bombed out?

Perhaps Denver tomorrow...

Celibidache Rant

You can always tell a Celibidache pupil, they parrot his arrogance, they parrot his pseudo-philosophical bullshit, they populate conducting programs and reproduce his cult: a cult that has produced almost no conductors of note at all.

I had to defriend one of them: who just strikes me as one of the most arrogant little shits in the music world, and who controlled the conducting program at my local conservatory for years. Thank god I never went there, I would have challenged every assertion of his and lasted about five lessons. Everybody who disagrees with him is 'wrong'.

On his webpage he has a thing about 'maestro malpractice' about how so few conductors obey the tempo markings in Shostakovich 5, including Kurt Sanderling if memory serves (!). If he knew anything about the history of Shostakovich performance he'd realize that Sanderling was picked apart by some Shostakovich pupil for not obeying the markings, and Shostakovich shouted him down! He said 'if Kurt feels it that way, let him do it!'

Then there was a thing the other day about how to hold a fermata. Reading it enraged me. He said that in some debate 'everyone is wrong' and 'there is only one explanation.' It's one thing if I've seen it from him once, but I've read him do it over and over and over again. This is the kind of closed system that has cut off classical music from music for over 100 years, and has closed classical music at the root from the evolution of the world. It academicizes all sorts of phenomena that are about practical accommodation and living evolution, and prevents classical music culture from participating in the wider evolution of music. We have many great composers right now, but they are, by and large, composers for a small audience of conoisseurs: and there should always be composers for a small, specific audience, but where are the populists? Where are the ones who can appeal to the broad base? Where are our Shostakoviches, our Verdis, our Beethovens, our Mahlers?! What distinguished them was not tonality or tunes, it was the broader support of the music world that allowed them to realize their ambitions, even when nobody liked the results. Sure, there were still commercial and censorious considerations, but the vision remained, the ability to pursue the large scale remained. Where are our composers who can represent humanity at its broadest crossections? The ones who even try to do it are generally confined to ghettos we don't accept: film music, video game music, crossover, where they are almost entirely dependent on commercial appeal which dilutes the vision.

Nearly every composer can't do it today: and it's not that they can't, it's that they're prevented. The circumstances are certainly better than they were even 20 years ago when I was applying to grad school, perhaps even much better, but we still haven't felt the results yet. The combination of academic pressure, lack of funding, lack of experience in learning musical techniques of other genres, and commercial pressures mean that the vision it takes to create the longest, most diverse, most visionary and challenging projects is discouraged. There are so many talented composers out there, of all ages, that the fabric of talent has lumps! But we're all stuck doing the small shit, we're all teeming with ideas that are too big to ever get the funding and audience we need, and many of the older academics were incentivized to root against our success because it would ruin the justification for the ones who got the jobs we all coveted by repeating the atonal/serial bullshit dogmas of their own professors. Academia rewards orthodoxy. The problem is not that tonality lost, the problem is that curiosity lost! Those who love atonal/serial music (as I occasionally do) should always be free to listen, support, create it with no block to their funding and productivity, but when so many of them said 'this is the only way', they created an iron curtain around our music that wrecked our ability to be influenced by the wider world. Thank god, they're retiring now, but their effect on us will continue for a lifetime.

Similarly, where are the performing musicians who are truly free? Between the moderation of Kubelik and the extremity of Bernstein, I'll usually take moderate romantics like Kubelik, but there has to be a place for extremity too! We have a few, some of whom unfortunately embrace extreme politics in addition to music, but at least the extremists realize what we're missing, and want to turn back the clock to an era when the public really cared. We need more musicians who can shock us, the shocks are where the real challenges lie: musicians like Patricia Kopatschinskaya, Fazil Say, Ivo Pogorelich, Gidon Kremer, Adam Fischer, even conductors of dubious ethics like Francois-Xavier Roth and Teodor Currentzis. Just like past musicians like Stokowski, Gould, Gitlis, and dare I say, Celibidache in his performer form (not the cult leader), the negative reactions they engender is part of the artistic process that grows us all. We grow through being challenged. You (and I) may not always like the results, but the results are necessary. No challenge: no art.

I have deep, philosophical suspicions of anyone who says there is only one explanation. Music is not a science! It's not even a soft science, it's an art, and art is done by practical solutions, not theory and certainly not ideology. I'm sure there are cases when there is only one solution, but it's maybe 1 in 100 at most. People who say that there is only one reason or solution are generally dogmatists trying to squelch your individuality: either subscribers to a cult or the leader themselves. Celibidache would throw Buddhism and totalitarian philosophers like Heidegger as justification for his 'phenomenology' and 'epiphenomena' bullshit, against him I raise philosophers like Isaiah Berlin, Montesquieu and Giambattista Vico, who say that the truth is not discovered but made, built, dependent on the circumstances of its creation, and the vast majority of the time, there is more than one way of doing things, and that the world becomes a better place when people realize that there can be irreconcilable viewpoints that nevertheless can live together in peace and celebrate each other's differences.

If not following the score is an excuse for laziness, obviously it's unacceptable. But if it's a way of creating a different sort of performance, that is how music LIVES. That is how music EVOLVES. The musical scenes and genres that realize this are the healthy ones, the others are diseases that can only live by killiing healthy bodies.