It’s a little over a week now since Osvaldo Golijov’s ill-fated performance of Sidereus in Oregon, a concert that exposed the Grammy-winning composer to multiple charges of plagiarism (and worse). A robust discussion has ensued in the music world, with some fascinating insights. And in some quarters, the silence is deafening.
I won’t go into the gory details, but Tom Manoff’s article pretty much sums it up, since he was there and instantly heard what was happening. Alex Ross and Anne Midgette have also weighed in, with Mr. Ross even comparing both scores side-by-side. One of the most penetrating articles came from Garrett Schumann over at Sequenza21, in which he dissects the larger implications of this whole affair.
Mr. Golijov has yet to respond publicly, nor has his publisher. There are comments from Henry Fogel and the conductor Marin Alsop in this piece, but neither seemed to have been aware of the controversy’s magnitude. 35 orchestras jointly commissioned Sidereus, and to my knowledge nobody from any of them has commented except a fairly tepid defense by Ryan Fleur, President and Chief Executive of the Memphis Symphony in this article.
I can understand why Mr. Golijov is laying low; there’s really not much to say. But after a week of pretty dramatic press, why the timidity from everyone else involved in the genesis of Sidereus? There’s so much wrong with this that at least some official response from the League of American Orchestras seems appropriate. I have two suggestions to start:
– Presumably this commission was in the tens of thousands of dollars. Mr. Golijov should split it with Mr. Ward-Bergeman, and credit him in the score. Better yet, donate his half to a younger composer who’d probably kill for that amount to write a truly original work that might be performed by 35 different orchestras.
– Sidereus has been performed several times already, but maybe future performances should be suspended until the credits are resolved and other contractual details are reexamined (don’t contracts for commissions specify “original work”?).
Just to be clear- I was a huge fan of Mr. Golijov’s work, and probably still will be to some extent. I have heard (and performed) quite a few of his compositions. But of course now I have to wonder how much of it was truly his voice; I find that very disappointing.
I understand the tradition of “borrowing”, of composers being “influenced” to a degree. But this is something more substantial- If I made a recording that had 20 minutes of someone else playing passed off as my own, that would certainly cause a few problems. If a university professor steals a few paragraphs from someone else for a paper, there are definite consequences. And if an author does something similar for a book or screenplay, there’s often legal action. Why is this different?