Composers Forum is a daily web log that allows invited contemporary composers to share their thoughts and ideas on any topic that interests them--from the ethereal, like how new music gets created, music history, theory, performance, other composers, alive or dead, to the mundane, like getting works played and recorded and the joys of teaching. If you're a professional composer and would like to participate, send us an e-mail.
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thoughts on influence
Rodney Lister
influence
Lawrence Dillon
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Tom Myron
The Ethics of an (Autocratic?) Education
Corey Dargel
Well, since you asked...
Rodney Lister
Words, Music, and Performance
Corey Dargel
what works have most influenced my music
Beth Anderson
Name That Tune
Jerry Bowles
Posted by [Dysfunctional]
Corey Dargel
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Thursday, March 31, 2005
Well, since you asked...
It's hard for a person to gage influence on himself very accurately, but assuming that what I like most is what influenced me most, in no particular order...
Virgil Thomson--(Virgil was a teacher of mine, but I knew some of his music long before I knew him)--Symphony on a Hymn Tune, Mostly About Love, The Feast of Love, The 'Cello Concerto, and The Mother of Us All (I like Four Saints very much, but not quite as much as The Mother. I also really like parts of Lord Byron, although it's uneven).
Peter Maxwell Davies--(Another teacher, with whom I've kept in pretty close touch, and certainly followed his music closely) Worldes Blisse, Ave Maris Stella, Image Reflection Shadow, A Mirror of Whitening Light, Symphony #3, Hymn to St. Magnus, and most recently the Naxos Quartets--the ones I know)
Arthur Berger--(another teacher) 'Cello Duo (which I knew long before I knew Arthur, which is a long, long time indeed), Yeats Songs, Guitar Trio, Bagatelles.
Ezra Sims--especially the Third Quartet, String Quartet #2 (1962)--for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, and 'cello--,and Phenomena
Milton Babbitt--Composition for Viola and Piano, Du, The Widow's Lament In Springtime, Triad, Mehr Du (all of which I've played--in some cases alot--and know pretty well), Quartets #2 and #6.
Percy Grainger--especially the twelve instrument version of Shepherd's Hey, Handel In the Strand, Harvest Hymn, Six Dukes Went Afishin', Died for Love
Vaughan Williams--Sea Symphony, Symphonies #3 & 5, The Shepherds of the Delectible Mountains, Five Mystical Songs, Hodie, Hymns for Tenor, Viola, and Piano
Britten--most especially Serenade, Nocturne, Noye's Fludde, and the folksong arrangements.
John Cage--The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs, Suite for Toy Piano, String Quartet, Melodies for Violin and Keyboard, The Seasons, Cheap Imitation
Machaut--just about anything, but especially Douce Dame Jolie and Hoquetus David
Monteverdi--Book VIII of the Madrigals
Coltrane--Ascension
Justin Morgan--Amanda and Judgment Anthem
Ruth Crawford--Sandburg Songs
Satie-Socrate (There's no piece in the world anything like--and sometimes I think anything near as wonderful as--Socrate. I was outraged recently to see it described in Taruskin's History of Western Music as skimpy and technically inept).
Michael Finnissy--especially Banimbir, Unknown Ground, String Trio, Multiple Forms of Constraint, Seventeen Immortal Homosexual Poets.
Judith Weir--King Harald's Saga, The Consolations of Scholarship, Thread!
And finally--a little story: Virgil wrote that the day after the first performance of the Copland Organ Symphony (which is a terrific piece--and which he said was the piece that everybody of their generation wanted to write) he saw Boulanger and she asked him what he thought of it. He said when he heard it he wept. Boulanger said, yes, but the important thing is why did you weep. Virgil said, because he hadn't written it. I've only felt that way with a piece by somebody about my own age twice--Lee Hyla's third Quartet and I Broke Off a Golden Branch by Judith Weir.
posted by Rodney Lister
5:33 PM
Words, Music, and Performance
In response to Lawrence Dillon's question about which 1960 - 2005 works have influenced me:
My music almost always incorporates text, usually original text, and I often perform my own works (vocals and electronics). The pieces that come to mind incorporated text in a way that I thought was exceptional and unique, outside the realm of traditional art song or traditional music theater/opera or traditional singer/songwriter. Some of these are just exceptional works by exceptional songwriters. Here is a short list, in no particular order:
Eve Beglarian – LANDSCAPING FOR PRIVACY
Chocolate Genius (aka Marc Anthony Thompson) - GODMUSIC
Laurie Anderson – HOME OF THE BRAVE
The Magnetic Fields (aka Stephin Merritt) – 69 LOVE SONGS (the album)
Conrad Cummings – PHOTO OP
Robert Ashley – IMPROVEMENT
I am also a founding member of the experimental theater company LABORATORY THEATER (check out our NYC performances this weekend!) , and I am always seeking inspiration from other disciplines and other media. My performances (and in some ways my composing) are also influenced by the works of:
John Cage (especially SONGBOOKS which I have performed many times)
THE WOOSTER GROUP
Pina Bausch
Jenny Holzer
Neil Greenberg
Robert Wilson
Cathy Weis
…and many others
posted by Corey Dargel
12:04 PM
what works have most influenced my music
Radio Music by John Cage and In C by Terry Riley are sources of inspiration to me. Radio Music celebrates change, making collage seem like a good idea, even though the piece itself is undoubtedly a process piece (thank you Bob Ashley). Reaching a bit further back, everything by Mahler has that same effect on me.
In C reminds me that it is possible to make interesting/beautiful new music from the C-scale.
Charles Amirkhanian’s piece that includes the famous line “Rainbow chug bandit bomb” is a text-sound inspiration.
Everything by Pauline Oliveros has the effect of inspiring and encouraging me to feel entitled to compose.
Respighi ‘s The Pines of Rome and The Fountains of Rome inspire my orchestration.
Frank Churchill’s music for Walt Disney films is a melodic inspiration.
Colin McPhee’s Tabuh-Tabuhan and everything by Lou Harrison inspires an interest in the music of other cultures and their possible integration into my music.
Satie’s Socrate is an inspiring piece in general but I can’t think of what it influenced me to do. So cool and such a lovely choice of coloraturas to play men—what an idea!
posted by Beth Anderson
10:37 AM
Name That Tune
Lawrence Dillon has an interesting thread going on what pieces from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s have changed the way composers think about composing. I thought it might be enlightening to find out what particular works have most influenced the composers in this forum? Not a best of list, or most important, or even personal favorites necessarily, but works that were a revelation or source of inspiration.
posted by Jerry Bowles
9:38 AM
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