Elliott Carter at 100

elliottcarter
Only twelve days ago we celebrated Claude Levi-Strauss turning 100. Today we celebrate the
100th birthday of great American composer Elliott Carter.

Elliot Carter at 100
Listening to The Rite of Spring changed his life.
Elliott Carter studied English at Harvard. Here he talked about reading poems of the English Jacobean poet Richard Crashaw.

In general, my music seeks the awareness of motion we have in flying or driving of a car and not the plodding of horses or the marching of soldiers that pervades the motion patterns of older music. At the time I was reading poems of the English Jacobean poet Richard Crashaw, and was fascinated by his 157-line Latin poem Bulla (Bubble), which at one point personifies a floating bubble that has this to say: (Read more here)

Frank J. Oteri interviews American composer Elliott Carter on youtube (Elliott is spunky and relaxed)

The Score
2009: No Centennials for You by Christopher DeLaurenti

Still thriving at 100, Carter is in the unprecedented position of living to see his own centennial, a grand celebration with revivals and premieres around the world. On Friday, as part of the Washington Composers Forum “Transport” concert series, cellist Alexander Ezerman and pianist Cristina Valdés tackle Carter’s 1948 Sonata for Cello and Piano, an impassioned—and relatively accessible—work that hints at the fierce rhythmic complexity heard in his landmark string quartets of the 1950s.

Esprit Rude/Esprit Doux II, Elliott Carter

Symphonia-Allegro Scorrevole-1993/11995

Sonata for Cello and Piano (youtube)

Ursula Oppens celebrates Elliot Carter (youtube)