When a listener begins to concentrate on a single composer’s works, they often listen for the piece in which the composer has found his or her own voice, a voice that from then on will mark the music they write as their own.
But what if a composer refuses to settle into their own manner of speaking but keeps exploring other “influences” that are no longer merely instructional but a continuing inspiration to the composer? Or if the composer becomes engaged with another unique voice that becomes a kind of creative collaborator?
Michael Tippett is a composer Richie likes to call “kaleidoscopic”; a new work by Tippett never sounds like the work that preceded it. Then there is David Del Tredici, who became obsessed with another work of art… so much so that he has spent much of his career reimagining it musically.
