AMERICAN MUSIC SERIES      Interview no. 188 a,b

Michael Torke

With Ev Grimes

New York, NY

November 13, 1986

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Side a                                                                                                 pp. 1-11

Family background--childhood music--first piano teacher-start in composing--early music experience--toy piano--title relations to childhood--Audrey Bruch Wood--Sister Theophane Hytrek--first compositions--start of competitions--early playing--first orchestral piece--high school-Interlochen--Bartók and Stravinsky--Eastman--Joe Schwanter--Samuel Adler--Warren Benson--Gunther Schuller--Chris Rouse--Rouse's influence--Vanada--Ceremony of Innocence--Eastman concerto competition--George Crumb--appearance of new pieces--Nabokov's Lolita--other compositions at Eastman--Tanglewood--new ideas in composing--Ecstatic Orange and Verdant Music--key structure--references to Beethoven, Haydn--David del Tredici.

Side b                                                                                                            pp. 11-20

Yale--MacDowell and Del Tredici--Jacob Druckman--Macy's and high school--Frederic Rzewski--Martin Bresnick--new commissions--Yadoo--European trips and festivals--Heraklion, Crete--Rome Prize--recent performances of works--perspectives of history--Boosey and Hawkes--inevitable choice of career--new projects and commissions--upcoming ballet--non-musical influence--non-musical interests--color relating to notes--recurring motives--construction of works--central ideas--developing ideas to the fullest potential--expounding ideas.

Michael Torke

with Jenny Raymond

New York, N.Y.

July 27, 1999

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cassette Side j                                                                                   pp. 1-19

Strawberry Fields from the trilogy Central Park--genesis and working out of Central Park--working with librettist A.P. Gurney--story of Strawberry Fields--impact of prizes on his career--resigning Rome prize--Yellow Pages--Ecstatic Orange--Bright Blue Music--Green--Purple--Peter Martins--Ecstatic Orange--Andy Warhol’s last TV show--Purple--working with New York City Ballet--working with Ulysees Dove for Alvin Ailey--July (Quartet for Saxophones)--Flint--composing opera (Strawberry Fields)--Adjustable Wrench--Yaddo-listening to the Beatles--Black and White--Peter Martins American Music Festival--Slate (Echo)--commission from Empire Brass to write a concerto--his mother’s illness--Ash--Copper--David Zinman.

Cassette Side k                                                                                 pp. 19-37

Ash—royalties—Javelin—Bronze—piano concerto—Mass—Bright Blue Music—Slate—Lincoln Kirstein—Mass—choreographers renaming pieces—Slate/Echo—Ash, John Adams, conducting, and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra—contract with Argo label of Decca—Book of Proverbs—Walt Disney and the Millenium Symphonies—recording industry—Javelin—importance of recording on CD—Rust—Overnight Mail—Mass—counterpoint—Bronze—Bright Blue Music—Ash—Chalk—working out of contract with Boosey and Hawkes—Red—Slate—Music on the Floor—Chalk—Run—Monday and Tuesday—Vanada—Red—Ecstatic Orange—Chalk—murals of Ivor Abrahams—Bright Blue Music—Balanescu Quartet.

Cassette Side l                                                                                  pp. 37-55

Work for Balanescu Quartet—commission from Ying Quartet—Chalk—Bright Blue Music—synthesthesia—Run—use of voice in Four Proverbs—The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat—King of Hearts:  a television opera—Piano concerto—Saxophone Concerto—writing for particular performers—Javelin—MacDowell Colony—role of the audience—composers and the university—Telephone Book—Nylon—Four Proverbs—piece written for DesMoines Symphony—more on Telephone Book—use of language in Book of Proverbs.

Cassette Side m                                                                                pp. 55-74

Brick Symphony—Jasper—Lucent Variations—Pentecost—singers—more on Lucent—Four Seasons:  Disney commission—Philip Latelle, librettist—Aaron Kernis—ballets:  Echo, Slate, Black and White—question of being inspired by earlier works—craft and beauty—composing routine—computer programs—choosing texts—Philip Latelle, Pete Gurney, Christopher Rawlence—viability of tonality.

Cassette Side n                                                                                 pp. 74-81

Glimmerglass:  Strawberry Fields—appointment as composer-in-residence with Royal Scottish National Orchestra—their education dept.—Percussion Concerto—Meet-the-Composer residencies—Jacob Druckman and The New Horizon Concerts—opportunities for contemporary composers—Steve Reich and Philip Glass—teaching—Atlantic Center for the Arts—teaching jobs—current projects:  Percussion Concerto, new piece for Minnesota Orchestra, quartet for Ying Quartet, story ballet for National Ballet of Canada, band commission for Goldman Band—Misanthrope.