Elliot Carter 1908 - 2012

[synthifou]

RIP to an extraordinary artist.  His last work was completed just a couple of months back, 12 Short Epigrams for Piano, at the age of 103.

[ahinton]

RIP to an extraordinary artist.  His last work was completed just a couple of months back, 12 Short Epigrams for Piano, at the age of 103.

An inspiration to us all; it seems hardly possible that he's no longer with us.

But two "t"s, please! - sadly, for the last time...

RIP EC.

[littletune]

Oh... that's sad!  well I guess you kinda have to expect that when you're over 100... 

[ahinton]

Oh... that's sad!  well I guess you kinda have to expect that when you're over 100... 

You'd think so, wouldn't you - in most cases - but not in his; he was writing up until less than three months ago and I suspect that the fact that a problem that he got that stopped him from continuing to work probably got to him more than the problem itself.

As to Carter and the piano, he was never quite what one might think of as a pianist but he did give some recitals in his 'teens (i.e in the early 1920s) and his very last completed thoughts as a composer are a set of 12 Epigrams for piano that he finished in August this year...

Best,

Alistair

[mephisto]

RIP.

Sadly I haven't really heard that much of his  music. Would anyone care to recommend some pieces?

[ahinton]

RIP.

Sadly I haven't really heard that much of his  music. Would anyone care to recommend some pieces?

Yes; for someone unfamiliar with his work, I'd say A Holiday Overture, the Piano Sonata, the Cello Sonata, String Quartets 1 & 5, Variations for Orchestra, Concerto for Orchestra, the concertos for oboe, violin, clarinet and cello, Three Occasions and his most ambitious and arguably greatest achievement of all, Symphonia: Sum Fluxæ Pretium Spei; between them, these cover around 60 years of his 84-year creative life...

Best,

Alistair

[cmg]

Here's a link to an appraisal of Carter that the New York Times published.  I've lived in his neighborhood for years and often lurked trying to meet him on the streets.  No luck.  An elusive little devil who obviously had better things to do (composing) than to meet or even avoid me!  An extraordinary man whose compositional life is detailed in this fine article.  Bless you, Elliott, and Godspeed.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/07/arts/music/elliott-carter-composer-and-master-of-gear-shifting.html?ref=arts

Also, the link to his NYTimes obituary:

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/06/arts/music/elliott-carter-avant-garde-composer-dies-at-103.html?ref=music

[mephisto]

Yes; for someone unfamiliar with his work, I'd say A Holiday Overture, the Piano Sonata, the Cello Sonata, String Quartets 1 & 5, Variations for Orchestra, Concerto for Orchestra, the concertos for oboe, violin, clarinet and cello, Three Occasions and his most ambitious and arguably greatest achievement of all, Symphonia: Sum Fluxæ Pretium Spei; between them, these cover around 60 years of his 84-year creative life...

Best,

Alistair

Thanks!

Edit: I just listened to the Holiday Overture. A very likeable piece

[ahinton]

Thanks!

Edit: I just listened to the Holiday Overture. A very likeable piece

It is indeed! It may have only tenuous characteristics that link it to the mature Carter - and his friend Copland, to whom I seem to recall he dedicated it, described it rather ruefully as "another complicated piece by Carter" (thereby in one short and perhaps unfortunately misconceived phrase setting off trains of thought in people's minds that Carter was a "complexicist" long before the term had any currency!) but it's worth remembering its provenance as a celebration of the liberation of France towards the end of WWII because no one in his/her right mind really thought that what would follow could possibly be any kind of "holiday" - more of a mere relief and cause for hope, which is what I think underpins the uneasiness that is rarely absent as a kind of undertone of thought in this otherwise attractive and almost quasi-populist piece.

Best,

Alistair

[littletune]

You'd think so, wouldn't you - in most cases - but not in his; he was writing up until less than three months ago and I suspect that the fact that a problem that he got that stopped him from continuing to work probably got to him more than the problem itself.

As to Carter and the piano, he was never quite what one might think of as a pianist but he did give some recitals in his 'teens (i.e in the early 1920s) and his very last completed thoughts as a composer are a set of 12 Epigrams for piano that he finished in August this year...

Best,

Alistair

In August?! I knew we were somehow conected!!! That's my birth month!!!
I'm not exactly sure if I understood what you said about that problem... but the way I understood what you wrote was that something happened and he couldn't write anymore because of it and then that made him feel so horrible and sad that he died?!   

[ahinton]

In August?! I knew we were somehow conected!!! That's my birth month!!!
I'm not exactly sure if I understood what you said about that problem... but the way I understood what you wrote was that something happened and he couldn't write anymore because of it and then that made him feel so horrible and sad that he died?!   

Well, I won't go quite as far as that, but I understand that he became quite ill and was unable to shake of his illness, but the fact that this irritated and frustrated him because it prevented him from doing more work almost certainly aggravated his state, though whether or not that hastened his passing I cannot possibly say.

Whilst it might sound on odd thing to say of someone approaching the age of 104, one can, in Elliott Carter's case, nevertheless speak of someone cut down in his prime and whose demise was premature.

Best,

Alistair

[littletune]

Well, I won't go quite as far as that, but I understand that he became quite ill and was unable to shake of his illness, but the fact that this irritated and frustrated him because it prevented him from doing more work almost certainly aggravated his state, though whether or not that hastened his passing I cannot possibly say.

Whilst it might sound on odd thing to say of someone approaching the age of 104, one can, in Elliott Carter's case, nevertheless speak of someone cut down in his prime and whose demise was premature.

Best,

Alistair

Oh that's sad!    Poor Elliott!
Yes like my mum says some people are old at 20 and some people are never really old!