Popular American Composers

Unveils the unique influences of Sousa, Ellington and eight other composers whose musical creations have become some of the most memorable music in history.

In 1972-73, Barney Childs embarked on an ambitious attempt to survey the landscape of new American concert music. He recorded freewheeling conversations with fellow composers, most of them under forty, all of them important but most not yet famous. Though unable to publish the interviews in his lifetime, Childs had gathered invaluable dialogues with the likes of Robert Ashley, Olly Wilson, Harold Budd, Christian Wolff, and others. Virginia Anderson edits the first published collection of these conversations. She pairs each interview with a contextual essay by a contemporary expert that shows how the composer's discussion with Childs fits into his life and work. Together, the interviewees cover a broad range of ideas and concerns around topics like education, notation, developments in electronic music, changing demands on performers, and tonal music. Innovative and revealing, Interviews with American Composers is an artistic and historical snapshot of American music at an important crossroads.

The Dictionary of American Classical Composers covers over 650 composers active from the 18th century to today. Covering all classical styles, it offers the most comprehensive overview of key composers in the United States available. Entries include basic biographical information and critical analysis of each composer's key works and ideas. Entries also include worklists and bibliographic information. Whenever possible, the entries will have been checked by the composers themselves to assure greatest possible accuracy. This new edition, completely updated and expanded from the 1984 edition, also includes over 200 historic photographs.

Updates some biographies listed in the earlier volume, published 1962, and includes thirty-one new biographies of composers who have come into prominence since 1962

Includes material on Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Henry Dixon Cowell, Paul Creston, Norman Dello Joio, Lukas Foss, Stephen Collins Foster, George Gershwin, Morton Gould, Charles Griffes, Ferde Grofe, Howard Hanson, Roy Harris, Alan Hovhaness, Charles Ives, Ulysses Kay, Normand Lockwood, Edward MacDowell, Peter Mennin, Gian-Carlo Menotti, Douglas Stuart Moore, Walter Piston, Quincy Porter, Wallingford Riegger, William Schuman, Roger Sessions, John Philip Sousa, and William Grant Still.