text: Great composers are often only recognized as such long after their deaths. By the end of his life J.S. Bach was considered an old has-been writing in an old-fashioned style that his contemporaries were abandoning in droves. And yet, his great contrapuntal masterpiece, "The Art of Fugue," was written during his late period. It is considered the crowning achievement of the Baroque era in music. There are great composers writing for the church now. You'll hear their music performed in some of the great cathedrals and major parish churches both in this country and abroad. You just have to look hard to find them. Great art often challenges people in ways that make them uncomfortable. Such music is largely avoided in most Catholic churches in favor of bland, tepid pabulum that mostly seeks to comfort the comfortable. Such music will end up in the dustbin of history, where it belongs.