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In your bio you mention
the first time you saw the Beatles on TV. What was
that like? You’re watching Ed Sullivan. The Beatles
are there and they’re playing their guitars. Girls
are screaming.
The following week I got
a guitar. It was a folk guitar and I took some
lessons. I played guitar from the ages of 9 to 14.
Then I slowly discovered classical music. I took up
the piano and dove right into the classical piano
literature.
What was the
classical work you heard that got your attention?
It was Bach. I don’t
know if Bach has this influence on other people. But
it affected me very deeply. Counterpoint is still
important to my current style.
Did the teacher play
it for you?
No, my older sister in
college introduced me to Bach. She brought home
“Switched On Bach.”
That was the album
with Wendy Carlos.
Yeah, Wendy Carlos.
Later I heard the non-electronic version of the
Brandenburgs, and it was much better.
But they didn’t play
Bach in school?
Oh, no. We didn’t have a
good music program.
Were you able or
encouraged to perform your compositions in high
school?
No, I was too shy to
play my music in public. I was really introverted. I
could never dream of doing that in high school. I
was a loner type.
Some composers get
their ideas through dreams, inspiration, out of the
blue, or a combination of all these things and more.
Where do you think the music came from inside of
you? Do you have a basic formula you use when you
set out to write a work?
My music comes from a
combination of all the music I heard before. And
then I put 20% of myself on top of that base. You
know how you hear a little Haydn and Mozart riffs
throughout early Beethoven. I think that’s how most
composers work. To make a clean break with the past
like the “Rite of Spring” or Terry Riley’s “In C” is
very, very rare.
So you are pretty
much into synthesis?
Yeah.
It’s a way of thinking?
You just take sources and fuse them together with
your personality?
Right, including all the
places you’ve been, the people you’ve met and, of
course, the music you’ve heard.
Your life experience?
Right, that’s what’s
neat about music these days ‘cause all the composers
of my generation have been exposed to so much varied
music through recordings. We’re only the first or
second generation with an unlimited supply of
recordings from around the world and from the
distant past.
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