AMERICAN MUSIC SERIES 286 c-d OHV
Dominick Argento
With Russell Platt
Minneapolis, Minnesota
May 25, 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Side c pp. 1-40
Deciding to stay in Minnesota—other offers—incidental scores and the Masque of Angels for the Guthrie theater—forming an opera company—Postcard from Morocco--
Writing orchestral music—teaching—comparing his operas—Richard Strauss’s operas—Strauss’s librettists—Argento as his own librettist in The Aspern Papers—degree of control over his various libretti, especially Postcard from Morocco—Peter Maxwell Davies—meaning of term “romantic”—Evensong—twelve-tone technique in Evensong—other composers: Tod Machover, Steve Reich, Philip Glass—possible atrophy of classical music—contemporary composers whose music is no longer played—application to Wilder estate to use a couple of sentences from the Bridge of San Luis Rey denied—minimalism—difficulties in assessing music today—pieces that have won the Pulitzer Prize—rapprochement with twelve-tone music—composers and universities—Bravo Mozart—Tria Carmina Paschalia—David Lang’s recent award of the Pulitzer Prize—freedom in composition—precomposition—love for classical music not as strong among board members today—loss of non professional audience for music—his work with various directors of the Minnesota orchestra—Valentino Dances—Casa Guidi—
Aaron Kernis—Young Composers program at the Minnesota orchestra.
Side d pp. 40-72
American Composers Forum—his move to Minnesota—his focus on his work—Hugo Weisgall—Esther—A Few Words About Chekov—The Diary of Virginia Woolf—recordings of obscure composers—orchestras lack of interest in contemporary music—A Toccata of Galuppi’s—a review by Andrew Porter—“trans-Atlantic” artists—studying with Dallapiccola—his view of himself as a strictly American composer—his publisher Boosey & Hawkes—Nation of Cowslips—Masque of Angels—Evensong—chorus raising money to record Evensong—piece for the fiftieth anniversary of the ACDA: Cenotaph—Aspern Papers—his operas at the Minnesota opera.
