Piano Forum
Piano Board => Repertoire => Topic started by: pianonut on June 10, 2005, 04:21:51 AM
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do they all seem to be introverts? quiet? mysterious at times? reminds me of my first theory teacher. the husband of my husband's cousin (who is a concert pianist), and, one other theory prof. at wcu. though he seemed more extroverted but really spoke above my head - immediately catching on to the eroica symphony's eccentricities.
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Sorry, haven't met any composers personally, but went to the Benjamin Britten High School here in Suffolk UK, and had the honour of putting flowers on his grave every year because I was the musical one :) One of my older friends was a pupil of his so i'll ask when I see him again.
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I knew the composer/violinist Boatwright (a pupil of Hindemith) - - - I used to accompany voice students of his wife (a soprano). An amazing, funny, and diverse human being. Was a pioneer of contemporary and "worldly" music - - - had a passion for things ranging from Indian ragas to sacred hymns. Really cool guy.
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okay they aren't exactly composers...
i know pianist Ivo Pogorelić and his brother Lovro :D
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Every composer and composition teacher I have met tend to be, well, highly eccentric. For example, one fellow I know used to walk his three dogs (big dogs, I might add) on his bicycle. In the winter, with a hawaian (not spelled right) shirt on. He stopped after he broke his legs twice in a month. Composers tend to be really quite "different" people, like authors.
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I find it slightly strange that as a composer myself, I am able to look at this question quite objectively. I know a fair number of composers including: Brian Cherney, John Rea, Jean Lesage, John Corigliano, Denys Bouliane, and most notably Bouliane's master, Ligeti. Some of these composers are VERY straight forward, logical, and seem quite "normal" with the exception that they are, for the most part, extremely intelligent. However, some of them seem to have a few loose screws. I also know a few pianists...most notably Leon Fleischer...and he seems pretty normal.
Anyway, that's my experience.
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most of the ones i've met are quite normal, except for one thing: they all have one big obsession (usually some greek/roman/ethnic myth) they can talk about for hours and hours and hours... :)
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I have met and studied with the late Canadian composer Patrick Cardy.
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I met Roy Harris when I studied piano at UCLA with his wife, Johana Harris. Unfortunately, I didn't get to know him. I just shook hands with him when he came to the studio one day. He seemed pretty frail. He died about a year later
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My teacher was as prominent a composer as existed in this small part of the world. There were two aspects to his personality. The one almost everybody saw was an incredibly gifted, extroverted, self-aggrandising musician and pianist. His other side, one of vulnerability, intelligent modesty and creative honesty, he unfortunately revealed to very few. In fact, talking since to other people he knew, I have come to the conclusion I was just about the only one.
In areas of life other than music he was no more or less idiosyncratic than any of us.
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Rzewski's a weirdo (but brilliant)
Eilliot Carter, Milton Babbit and Ned Rorem are extremely kind gentlemen (and brilliant as well, of course)
koji