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Post by driscollmusick on Sept 26, 2017 1:50:42 GMT
Just gonna leave this right here... A Composer’s Debut, at 82 Some people are late bloomers. Then there is Richard Alan White, 82, who was a composer-in-hiding for the first eight decades of his life.
As a young man in New York City, Mr. White found that being a classically trained composer was not exactly a meal ticket. So he found work wearing a badge, first as a probation investigator for the city and later as a Columbia University security guard.
It afforded him both a livelihood and, oddly, the opportunity to compose. He retired a decade ago with a small pension and a 900-page opera called “Hester,” based on “The Scarlet Letter,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
The work was recently selected by the Center for Contemporary Opera for a workshop performance on Oct. 12 at the National Opera Center Recital Hall in Manhattan.
“Hester” will mark Mr. White’s debut.www.nytimes.com/2017/09/21/nyregion/a-composer-richard-alan-white-hester.html?mcubz=0&_r=0
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Post by David Unger on Sept 26, 2017 6:08:33 GMT
I read that one too! What a fabulous rôle model for all of us, in how he never gave up and used all the (scarce) time he had to compose, never giving up on his dream. It is also, I think, a terrific story of how the music itself is the thing that really matter (and the joy of creating it) and not the public response to it and attention because of it. A well earned debut in all the important ways, I think.
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Post by Mike Hewer on Sept 26, 2017 9:17:28 GMT
A wonderful thing to happen to him. I wonder what style he writes in?
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Post by fuguestate on Sept 26, 2017 16:06:17 GMT
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Post by driscollmusick on Sept 26, 2017 16:13:09 GMT
A 900-page opera based on The Scarlet Letter in fugue form?
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Post by fuguestate on Sept 26, 2017 16:18:14 GMT
Hey you never know... the fugue form is pretty flexible once you know your way around it. He could top off Beethoven by writing a fugue far grander in scale than the Grosse Fugue. A 900-page opera-fugue would definitely land him in the books of history, I think. If he could pull it off, that is. Therein lies the rub. But of course, this is most unlikely to be the case.
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