Politics & Power Quote by John Corigliano

Corigliano isn’t just poking at national snobbery; he’s calling out a prestige economy in classical music that still runs on old passports and older myths. The line lands because it’s blunt in a way composers rarely allow themselves in public: “mediocre British” versus “really good American” strips the debate down to the embarrassing trade that institutions often make - safety and pedigree over risk and excellence.

The specific intent is defensive and offensive at once. Defensive, because American composers have long been treated as provincial in a field whose gatekeepers (critics, conservatories, orchestras, donors) are trained to hear “European” as synonymous with “serious.” Offensive, because he’s accusing that gatekeeping class of an almost automatic reflex: respect becomes a default setting triggered by England, not a verdict earned by the work.

The subtext is about power, not taste. Britain functions here as a brand - exportable, legible, institutionally validated. “American,” by contrast, signals stylistic pluralism: film, jazz, minimalism, Broadway, the messy hybridity that makes some curators nervous. Corigliano, who moved easily between concert hall and cinema, is especially sensitive to how quickly “accessible” gets translated into “lesser,” particularly when it’s homegrown.

Context matters: late-20th-century American music fought for airtime in programs still dominated by European canons and European-trained authority. Corigliano’s jab is a reminder that cultural hierarchies persist less because they’re argued for than because they’re inherited, performed, and rarely questioned.