Soundpieces 2 : Interviews with American Composers

At last there is a companion volume to Scarcrow's landmark primary source on contemporary American, Soundpieces: Interviews with American Composers (1982).

Eighteen major composers, representing a wide range of musical attitudes and techniques, speak their minds in SOUNDPIECES 2: Glenn Branca, Anthony Braxton, Lucia Dlugoszewski, Lou Harrison, Alan Hovhaness, Anne LeBaron, Moondog, Pauline Oliveros, Terry Riley, Ned Rorem, Laurie Spiegel, Morton Subotnick, Sun Ra, James Tenney, "Blue" Gene Tyranny, Christian Wolff, La Monte Young, John Zorn. SOUNDPIECES 2 brings together an unprecedented spectrum of American composers, whose careers range through concert music jazz, and rock.

Their musics may be instrumental or electronic, improvised or fully notated, avant-garde or tonal; but all these artists discuss with rare candor the realities of making music in the United States.

The composers offer their own experiences in the worlds of performance, recording, and music education; they speak out on the state of music today, the role of criticism, and the work of their colleagues; and they share some of their personal histories, including their encounters with earlier generations of composers and musicians. This study eliminates the misinformation that has grown up around these artists and their work.

Beyond the first-hand accounts shared in the interviews, the book is also an indispensible reference source: Each interview is accompanied by a biographical profile, catalog of compositions (with publication information), discography, and bibliography of the composer's writings.

Compiled with the direct participation of the composers, these appendices offer authoritative, up-to-date information not available anywhere else.