Originally Posted by Gavin B.

Why is it terribly biased and unfair for me not to explain the way I vote? From my perspective, 18th white European composers have received more than their fair share of honors. In the United States, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Council for the Arts spends 90% of their music budget underwritting American symphonies who primarily play music composed by 18th Century white European composers. European classical music receives the lion's share of both wealthy patron donations and endowments for funds underwritten by the American taxpayer. It's not like the United States is utterly lacking a music culture or history.

Why aren't American art foundations honoring the great musical folkways of the United States by underwritting public performances of ragtime music, jazz, the blues, Appalachian mountain music composed by great American songwriters like Duke Ellington, Count Baise, Robert Johnson, Phil Ochs, John Lurie, Thelonious Monk, John Fahey, Maybelle Carter, Scott Joplin, Sun Ra, John Zorn, Johnny Cash, Phillip Glass Don van Vliet and Harold Budd?

It would have been nice if the National Endowment for the Arts would have spent just a little bit of that Beethoven money to honor a brilliant folk blues composer like Blind Willie McTell, who was poor, black and never received a royal commission to compose his music. Blind Willie composed music because he loved music and he spent most of his life playing for spare change on street corners and in parking lots, not in royal chambers and symphony halls.

The reason why I didn't vote for Beethoven is he's already immortal and he's already received more than enough accolades over the past 350 years. Beethoven doesn't need my vote or your vote to feel affirmed and he'd probably be baffled at his nomination by this forum.

I would appreciate it if forum members would respect the privacy of my vote and respect my right to remain silent on the reasons I voted for or against certain nominees.