Eliot Carter

In celebration of a true master.









I hope he has another 100 years of life. While every young artist knows Philip Glass and Steve Reich, I think that either of those composers would have been lost and unable to found a career without the groundwork that Carter laid. His life should be better known by my generation of artists. He lived through the idealistic NY scenes of the 20's through 50's. He is connected to an educated, thoughtful, sensitive, and interrelated past that will never be regained. Never again will composers be the apex of fine art and culture. I doubt very much that there will be another composer who writes music about poems while considering the new aesthetic techniques that are found in film. His was a singular time. His work is the last of a breed. Consider this- he was born 2 years after Dimitri Shostakovich.

After watching him grill Ursula Oppens into being more sensitive, to play contemplatively, as if there was something being thought of, rather than being played, I believe that his compositions have been rushed and played too aggressively by most. He wanted these pieces to be dreamlike and have some swing to them. Not to be hammered home in time, like clockwork or like a music box.

Quite a few composers talk about writing and wondering if their works can be preformed by even the right performers. Glass is always talking about his early years being a new way of playing, and it was, but I wonder if all of Carter's work are in fact played the way he heard them in his head. I wonder if he would like to rewrite some of his own work after hearing certain performances.