I am a composer roughly Tarm's age who attends a conservatory. I have met Tarm as well as some of the other composers mentioned. Hence the throwaway. I couldn't agree more with the NYYS's decision not to perform the work, and I find this whole ordeal quite sad for several reasons. Firstly, I call bullshit on the idea that these quotes meant something. It's a 10 minute piece, and the NYTimes writes that between Horst Wessel and the Ukranian quote, 90 seconds of it are quotes. In composer-code that means "I was pressed on a deadline and didn't have any ideas, so I sucked up some time by 'artistically quoting' some stuff." Tarm writes now that his piece is about oppression, but he told the symphony that it could be about anything including "Pokemon." Tarm, like so many composers, wants to "let the music speak for itself." In composer-code, that means, "I have no idea why I did what I did, and I'm too lazy to try and justify my decisions afterwards." Finally, Tarm insulted the organization and audience by using a short T.S. Eliot poem as his program notes. This is composer code for, "I don't know what to write about this piece and I want to seem hip and mysterious, so I'll just use someone else's words." And Tarm is expressing his great disappointment about his piece not being played, rallying supporters and engaging free-speech organizations to send letters of support. Mind you, his piece has already been played by the orchestra once. And he's already been paid. Granted, Carnegie is cool, but this big fuss he's making is composer code for "let's see how much publicity I can get out of this!" He's already had two Times articles written about him, and I feel absolutely no sympathy-- this is the best thing that has ever happened to his career. Look how many redittors familiarized themselves with his music so they could form an opinion!! It's a composer's dream!! Let's go back to this "free speech" angle which I find frankly insulting to everyone's intelligence. The NYYS is a private organization that honored Tarm with a $1000 commission. Tarm is allowed to write and say whatever he wants-- but he does not have the "right" to have his work played by a professional organization no matter how badly he treats them. In the real world, this happens all the time. An organization commissions a work from a composer, but is unhappy with the product-- so, that organization still pays the composer, but chooses not to perform the piece-- for any reason they like. I would bet that his contract stipulates the NYYS's right to do this-- and if he was going to have a problem with that, maybe he shouldn't have accepted the opportunity and signed the dotted line. If you want to hear his piece, you can assemble your own orchestra and play it-- but the NYYS has a name to represent and a clientele to appease. The fact that Tarm is not sensitive to this fact shows that he will (thankfully) not get very far. I have a huge problem with critics like Zachary Woolfe likening Tarm's decision not to write about the inclusion of the melody to that of Shostakovich. Shostakovich was afraid for his career, and it was for that reason that he could not tell others about his subversive references. Who is Tarm trying to subvert here? The NYYS who paid him $1000? The musicians who dedicated hours upon hours to his music? It's a slap in the face to everyone who devoted so much time and energy to make this piece a reality for a composer to take such lengths to exclude them from his creative process. But, like I said before, there's another explanation: Tarm didn't want the organization to know that he bullshitted his way through this piece, dramatically quoting everything he could get his hands on when he didn't know what else to do.

I think Tarm's immaturity and lack of respect for his business partners, musicians, and audiences, represents my generation extraordinarily poorly. At a time when classical music is struggling to keep its supporters, Tarm insults and alienates them from his music. I hate to say it about another composer, but with this kind of attitude, I hope NYYS is not the last organization to stop playing Tarm's music.