Alphabetical List of Composers
Foreword by Leonard Slatkin (Music Director, National Symphony
Orchestra)
Introduction
1: Eric Stokes (b. 1930)
2: Steve Reich (b. 1936)
3: William Bolcom (b. 1938)
4: John Corigliano (b. 1938)
5: John Harbison (b. 1938)
6: Joan Tower (b. 1938)
7: John Adams (b. 1947)
8: Claude Baker (b. 1948)
9: Dan Welcher (b. 1948)
10: Daniel S. Godfrey (b. 1949)
11: Fred Lerdahl (b. 1949)
12: Shulamit Ran (b. 1949)
13: Christopher Rouse (b. 1949)
14: Steven Stucky (b. 1949)
15: Libby Larsen (b. 1950)
16: Lois V Vierk (b. 1951)
17: John Zorn (b. 1953)
18: Michael Daugherty (b. 1954)
19: James Mobberley (b. 1954)
20: Bruce Adolphe (b. 1955)
21: Bright Sheng (b. 1955)
22: Richard Danielpour (b. 1956)
23: David Lang (b. 1957)
24: Sebastian Currier (b. 1959)
25: Aaron Jay Kernis (b. 1960)
Ann McCutchan is the author of six books, most recently The Life
She Wished to Live: A Biography of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Author
of The Yearling, released in 2021 by W.W. Norton. As well, she is a
busy lyricist and librettist, with eight commissioned works, most
recently The Dreamer, an opera based on an original story with
composer Mark Alan Taggart, premiered by the East Carolina
University Opera Studio in 2021. Her personal essays
have appeared in various journals and The Best American Spiritual
Writing.
"These interviews with 25 composers are distilled to short,
informal yet highly focused discussions....[McCutchan] allows the
voices of the composers--most of whom live and work in the U.S. and
were born between 1930 and 1960--to come through with
candor...These intimate snapshots of creative artists contemplating
their role and function at the end of the 20th century succeed not
only in shedding light on the creative process, but in dispelling
many of the
negative stereotypes attached to contemporary music." --Publishers
Weekly
"McCutchan has welded her talents as a performing musician and
write to produce a highly readable assessment of the serious music
currently being written...The Muse That Sings should be in public
libraries and academic music libraries, accessible to the serious
layman, music student, and professional musician. It is recommended
for those eager to explore the music pouring out of our American
composers and should inspire performances of their music."
--Notes
"The effect on the reader is astonishing as one after another of
these composers is revealed, warts and all, to be desperately and
wonderfully human."--David McGowan, American Music Teacher
"Engaging and inspirinig."--Chamber Music Magazine
"...The Must That Sings" [is] a book which will prove fascinating
to those with an interest in contemporary musical composition, and
in the creative process in general....Every decade needs a book
like this, for ideas and tastes will always change and it will
always require the work of scholars to document how the creative
minds of an age think about their art. Ann McCutchan has provided
such a work."--The Ithaca Times
"These interviews with 25 composers are distilled to short,
informal yet highly focused discussions....[McCutchan] allows the
voices of the composers--most of whom live and work in the U.S. and
were born between 1930 and 1960--to come through with
candor...These intimate snapshots of creative artists contemplating
their role and function at the end of the 20th century succeed not
only in shedding light on the creative process, but in dispelling
many of the
negative stereotypes attached to contemporary music." --Publishers
Weekly
"McCutchan has welded her talents as a performing musician and
write to produce a highly readable assessment of the serious music
currently being written...The Muse That Sings should be in public
libraries and academic music libraries, accessible to the serious
layman, music student, and professional musician. It is recommended
for those eager to explore the music pouring out of our American
composers and should inspire performances of their music."
--Notes
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