Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Short list of composers
Here is a short list of composers who I know little about (except Dusapin, I have done some research on him). I need to buy recordings of their works because I would like to hear more of them.
Ezra Sims - He is a microtonal composer from Alabama.
I am from Alabama also and I didn‘t really
know of any composers from my home state. I heard
one of his string quartets and I was immediately
engrossed in the work.
Brian Ferneyhough - I have heard only snippets of his music,
but I have read his Collected Writings. I really enjoyed
his essays and the few musical excerpts
I have heard were very interesting.
Morton Feldman - I don’t think I have heard anything by him,
but I have read an interview with him and Iannis Xenakis.
Pascal Dusapin - I have a couple recordings of his small chamber works
and a few orchestral works and they are amazing.
I must hear more.
posted by Everette Minchew
12:36 PM
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Composer Everette Minchew (born 1977) is consistently active in the creation, performance, and promotion of contemporary music. Moderately prolific, his catalogue includes small chamber pieces for violin, piano, various wind instruments, harpsichord and electronic music. Current commissions include a string trio and an opera based on an 11th-century crusades tale.
His earliest musical training came at the age of eleven when he began playing alto saxophone; it wasn’t long until he began his first attempts in composition.
He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Music History from the University of Southern Mississippi, where he studied saxophone under world-renowned soloist, Lawrence Gwozdz.
Fearing that traditional university training would hinder his development as a progressive composer, he abandoned the idea of formal lessons in favor of an intense private study of modern masterworks.
Minchew's works are characterized by their intense timbral explorations and brutal dissonance. That is not to say, however, that the compositions are devoid of beauty. In the first of the Two Brief Pieces, for example, the harpsichord chimes stringent yet haunting chords evoking a sense of loss.
Other pieces, like the Figment No. 2 "Juggler's Fancy" play upon the kaleidoscopic interaction between timbres and tones. The rapid alternation of pizzicato, arco bowing, and extreme glissandi remind the listener of Xenakis coupled with a Berio Sequenza. Minchew's Invention "Two-Part Contraption" for piano owes much to Ligeti's etudes and boogie-woogie jazz.
His music has been performed around the United States, and he was the featured composer at the 2005 Intégrales New Music Festival in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
He currently resides in Hattiesburg, Mississippi with his wife, Cheryl.
CONTACT INFORMATION
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