Fashion has moved on since composers like Persichetti and Dello Joio established themselves with a kind of Hindemithian American neo-classicism. They barely get a mention in the more recent textbooks on American music, but their music is always approachable. Dello Joio—a Pulitzer prizewinner in 1957—studied with Hindemith and Persichetti's music often has the kind of busy professionalism associated with Gebrauschmusik. Peter Schickele, from the next generation, has had connections with both composers—he studied with Persichetti and then became part of the Ford Foundation project for putting composers into high schools masterminded by Dello Joio.
The most substantial piece is Persichetti's Symphony No. 8 (1967). Everything is neatly turned and expertly scored but rarely memorable. All the same, careful listening to the Andante shows that Persichetti, although too fluent and prolific, was not merely a composer following routines. There is feeling within limits even if Persichetti's legendary natural musicianship comes out as polished imitation rather than originality. The 20-year-old recording has come up well.
Dello Joio's Homage to Haydn (1969) comes from an American romantic in the same tradition as Howard Hanson. So the idiom is not consistently neo-classical but offers witty asides close to the style of Haydn, whom Dello Joio admires for the ''directness of his communication''. This is another effective performance, but rather obvious music.
Schickele (alias P. D. Q. Bach) has fallen between two stools in Pentangle (1976)—partly named after the British rock group of the early 1970s—which he calls Five Songs for French horn and orchestra. There is excellent horn playing from Kenneth Albrecht and some simple materials are attractive. But as a whole the cycle cannot sustain its length and the folk-rock influence leads to low density composition of a kind more suitable for films.'