. . . there would appear to be fewer and farther between pieces called "symphony" from leading and widely performed composers . . .
This connects with what I have (often enough) said about the rise in recent decades of the cult of the "silly name" and the modernists' terror before the idea of absolute music.
- And I see that what Mr. D has just written about "intimidation" and "daunting prospects" fits in as well!
Is not the silly name fundamentally a kind of "cop out"?
Weingartner already had a lot to say about this phenomenon, in his discussions of the historical standing of Liszt's music. It all boils down to the frequency and placement of modulations, doesn't it.