Has Winning the Pulitzer Made a Difference? Christopher Rouse, Winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize in Music
Christopher Rouse Photo by Alex Irvin, courtesy Aspen Music Festival I think the Pulitzer can have a variety of effects on a career. In my own case, I don’t believe it changed much; the number of commissions and performances of my music have remained about the same in my pre-Pulitzer and post-Pulitzer periods. However, I… Read more »
Does Radio Have a Future?
Is there a sustainable place on the airwaves for music other than the Top 40 Pop or Classical hits?
Gunther Schuller: AMPPR Keynote Address 2000
Gunther Schuller Photo courtesy GM Recordings © 2000 by Gunther Schuller I appreciate very much being asked to present the keynote address at this Year’s annual Music Personnel Conference. Many of you know me only by name; some of you may know me as a composer, a few as a conductor; others of you know… Read more »
When do you listen to the radio and what do you listen to? Joan Tower
Joan Tower Photo by Steven J. Sherman, courtesy G. Schirmer, Inc. Frankly, I only listen to the radio in the car and then I’m listening primarily to the local NPR stations. On long rides, I love to listen to Car Talk, which is entertaining and funny, or the News Forum from the Washington Press Club,… Read more »
When do you listen to the radio and what do you listen to? Steve Metcalf
Steve Metcalf Photo by Paul Cryan As a child of the ’50s, I have a romantic attachment to radio, or at least the idea of radio. I even built a little crystal radio set from a kit, an achievement I recall to this day because it was the one and only time I have ever… Read more »
When do you listen to the radio and what do you listen to? Andrew Litton
Andrew Litton Photo by Steven J. Sherman, courtesy Aleba Gartner I keep my clock radio tuned to Dallas’ classical music station, WRR-FM, the oldest radio station in Texas, and occasionally wake up to music that may trigger some programming ideas. At least, that is my excuse for delaying getting out of bed! I mean, one… Read more »
When do you listen to the radio and what do you listen to? Milton Babbitt
Milton Babbitt Photo courtesy C.F. Peters Corp. I turn on the radio every morning and every night. But more often that not, I turn it off and put on a CD because in all the many years of listening to some half-dozen public stations, I have not heard a note of the most influential music… Read more »
Retuning the Dial: Rethinking the Relationship between Radio and New American Music
Jennifer Undercofler Photo by Brian Krinke Lately, it has gotten so that almost every time I turn in to my local classical music station, I feel as if I have been transported back to a very shiny version of the eighteenth century. Now, it’s not any secret to me that this public radio station is… Read more »
Soundtracks: May 2000
As usual, the 34 CDs collected in this month’s round-up of new recordings of American repertoire reflect a stunning range of musical possibilities. A great amount of lost American musical history has been unearthed recently in recordings of symphonies by Virgil Thomson, George Antheil, and Paul Creston, organ concertos by Leo Sowerby, chamber music by… Read more »
Can Radio Be Friendlier to New American Music?
Frank J. Oteri Photo by Melissa Richard This month marks the one-year anniversary of NewMusicBox and I am thrilled to say that it has been extremely successful thus far. When we launched our first issue a year ago, we had a little bit more than 5000 user sessions to the site. Not bad for a… Read more »
When do you listen to the radio and what do you listen to?
Milton Babbitt “…in all the many years of listening to…public stations, I have not heard a note of the most influential music of the 20th century…” Andrew Litton “Sometimes I awaken to my own voice when WRR plays one of our ads, which is extremely frightening.” Steve Metcalf “As a child of the ’50s, I… Read more »
What other jobs might you be interested in if you weren't so busy writing music? Stewart Wallace
Stewart Wallace Photo by Steve Sherman I’d make things with my hands like a sculptor or a painter. Things that I could touch. Things that would be done when I was done. Where the thing was the thing itself – not a roadmap to be interpreted, not dependent on the skills of the interpreter. Or… Read more »
What other jobs might you be interested in if you weren't so busy writing music? Melinda Wagner
Melinda Wagner Photo courtesy Theodore Presser Company In the field of music, if I weren’t so busy, I would return to teaching. I’d also really like to coach chamber music or conduct. Outside of music, I’d really enjoy working in a library, however one that is pre-computer! I love to work with file cards. I… Read more »
What other jobs might you be interested in if you weren't so busy writing music? Jeffrey Mumford
Jeffrey Mumford Photo courtesy Theodore Presser Company I would love to run a radio station that plays REAL music, that does not compromise (whatever style, just intensely good and focused). It would have a live format incorporated wherein there would be performances and interviews. There would also be live panel discussions on matters of musical… Read more »
What other jobs might you be interested in if you weren't so busy writing music? Daron Hagen
Daron Hagen Photo courtesy Carl Fischer Inc. If I could spend one hundred percent of my time composing I would. Now in my twenty-third year of thinking of myself as a composer, I have worked up to being able to spend eighty percent of my time pushing notes around. I’m proud of that. While I… Read more »
John Luther Adams Remembers William Colvig
William Colvig with Lou Harrison and John Luther Adams Photo by Dennis Keeley Musician and instrument builder, engineer and mountaineer William Colvig died on March 1, 2000 in Capitola California, at the age of 82. Born in Medford, Oregon on March 13, 1917, Bill grew up in Weed, California at the base of Mt. Shasta… Read more »
What other jobs might you be interested in if you weren't so busy writing music? Michael Daugherty
Michael Daugherty Photo courtesy 21st Century Music Management If I was not a composer I would either run a used book store or be a lounge cocktail pianist. I have always loved the smell of old books and enjoyed rummaging through the stacks never knowing what I might come across. For years I was a… Read more »
Soundtracks: April 2000
This month’s edition of SoundTracks spans a greater chronology that ever before. Perhaps it’s fitting that in the end of the first year of NewMusicBox, there would be so wide a range. Now that we’re in the 21st Century (pace to the 2001 apostates), of course, it is now possible to have recordings of American… Read more »
Hyphenated Composers
Like many other composers throughout our history, I have been a composer for most of my life but have always had other occupations as sources of income.
What other jobs might you be interested in if you weren't so busy writing music?
Michael Daugherty “I would either run a used book store or be a lounge cocktail pianist…” Daron Hagen “My second great love is to conduct my own theater music…” Jeffrey Mumford “Run a coffee house/art gallery with my wife…” Melinda Wagner “I’d really enjoy working in a library, however one that is pre-computer!…” Stewart Wallace… Read more »
American Music's "Elder Statespeople" Comment on the Future of Music George Rochberg
George Rochberg Photo courtesy Theodore Presser Company “Res Severa Verum Gaudium.” (“Serious things [bring] true joy.”) The past is in every present, hence in every future. “Eternity is in love with the products of Time.” (Blake) Surfaces keep changing, never substrata. The 18th/19th centuries’ in-gatherers all loved Res Severa. Their reward, Verum Gaudium, The Beautiful.… Read more »
American Music's "Elder Statespeople" Comment on the Future of Music George Perle
George Perle Photo by Johanna I. Sturm. Courtesy of George Perle I have been offered 100 words to reply to the question, “What is the future of music?” but I need only three: “I don’t know.” I can, however, answer another, related question: “What sort of future would you like for music?” Every new piece… Read more »
American Music's "Elder Statespeople" Comment on the Future of Music Henry Brant
Henry Brant Photo by Kathy Wilkowski, courtesy of Henry Brant What is happening in music may be compared to the current degradation of the natural world environment. Most music today emerges from loudspeakers, rather than from acoustically natural sources. In the United States, public interest is largely confined to commercial popular music. Genuine indigenous music… Read more »
It's About Time
Matthew Tierney Photo by Melissa Richard When musics from all cultures of the world are considered, rhythm stands out as most essential. Unfortunately, rhythm, despite its musical importance, has been less studied than melody and harmony, the history of Western music being primarily a history of pitch. This neglect has been especially unusual because with… Read more »
