In my last experience with an academic conference I discovered that though many composers were jettisoning rigorous music they were loath to eliminate the rigorous rigamarole rhetoric that "explained" it.
I might have thought that the "recent" move to simplicity would imbue the entire enterprise of music making. I was wrong. Perhaps its Babbitt's revenge, because as these younger and older composers who abandon intellectual musical rhetoric they still embrace Babbitt's approach to prose. They need to prove they are smart composers who know exactly what they are doing. Of course the requirements of the classroom are requirements after all and grad students and faculty are no different. One can't overlook the fact that explanations are part of the profession. But for me a blueprint is not a building, an explanation is not a performance
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