Roger Shapiro Fund Blog2026-04-17T14:49:42-04:00William Andersonhttps://www.rogershapirofund.org/blog/atom.xmlMeet The Post-Maximalistshttps://www.rogershapirofund.org/blog/the-post-maximalists/2015-07-20T00:00:00-04:00About the Post-Maximalists
They love the Minimalists & the Post-Minimalists.
But they love doing stuff. The 20th C. is the Burgess Shale of compositional techniques.
from Wikipedia on “Burgess Shale”
“Stephen Jay Gould’s book Wonderful Life, published in 1989, brought the Burgess Shale fossils to the public’s attention. Gould suggests that the extraordinary …21st Century Musichttps://www.rogershapirofund.org/blog/21st-century-music/2015-10-19T00:00:00-04:00We are now mostly homophonists improvising primarily with a few big unordered collections of pitches–diatonic & octotonic, whole tone & chromatic hexachords.
We are all tired of anything that moves like a row. We are tired of being hemmed-in like that.
In the 20th C. the octotonic set was a preferred extension of its subsets. 20th C. music had to leave the diatonic behind. This is …Andrew Imbrie's *Adam*https://www.rogershapirofund.org/blog/andrew-imbries-adam/2016-02-05T00:00:00-05:00
Andrew Imbrie is one of the precious few great American composers, and we have to thank Anthony Korf, George Rothman, Harold Rosenbaum, Riverside Symphony, and the New York Virtuoso Singers for championing Imbrie last night with a performance of a significant portion of *Adam*, for chorus and orchestra.
The performance happened at The Church of St. Mary the Virgin, on 46th St., between 6th …An American Wonder: Arlene Zallmanhttps://www.rogershapirofund.org/blog/an-american-wonder-arlene-zallman/2016-04-24T00:00:00-04:00
Arlene Zallman’s Wikipedia Entry
Her work is powerful, striking, perhaps even a bit eccentric. Interesting to note some jazz people getting behind her work, and I have to agree with the superlatives–what an ear! What good sense to study with Dallapiccola!–an obvious thing to do, which, nevertheless, few Americans chose to do. She seems to be better known in New England than …Bethany Beardslee Winham's upcoming memoirhttps://www.rogershapirofund.org/blog/bethany-beardslee-winhams-upcoming-memoir/2016-04-28T00:00:00-04:00The clipping above is from a Newseek article that covered Bethany Beardsley Winham’s premiere of Vision & Prayer in 1961.
“I don’t think in terms of the public. Music is for musicians. If the public wants to come along and study it, fine. I don’t go and tell a scientist his business because I don’t know anything about it. Music is just the same way. Music is art and not …The Erotics of Inversionhttps://www.rogershapirofund.org/blog/milton-babbitt-and-the-erotics-of-inversion/2016-05-14T00:00:00-04:00Babbitt & The Erotics of Inversion
This piece began as a lecture at the Universidad Veracruzana in September, 2015, hosted by Babbitt protégé, Emil Awad.
This is rough. It needs all kinds of reorganization.
Susan Sontag spoke this way in Against Interpretation. in which she introduces *the erotics of art*. She was shifting the grounds from the rational to the emotional. Nothing rational …The Volans Speechhttps://www.rogershapirofund.org/blog/the-volans-speech/2016-08-22T00:00:00-04:00above: composer Eleanor Cory
It’s here:
https://www.cmc.ie/features/if-you-need-audience-we-dont-need-you
Enthusiastically in agreement.
One difference: Short works are ok.
Regarding young composers, RSF has taken risks on behalf of young composers. RSF will continue to do so. Nevertheless, we are in agreement with Volans. Composers can get much better very late in life.
We see …Julia Wolfe's Steel Hammerhttps://www.rogershapirofund.org/blog/julia-wolfes-steel-hammer/2016-12-18T00:00:00-05:00The Bang on a Can composers are now in the enviable position to compose and produce evening-length works. David Lang’s “love fail” & “Little Match Girl” were followed in 2014 by Julia Wolfe’s “Steel Hammer”.
Alex Ross discusses these works in his New Yorker article—>
“Bang Theory”
Allan Kozinn discusses “Steel …The Van Cliburn Effecthttps://www.rogershapirofund.org/blog/the-van-cliburn-effect/2017-07-09T00:00:00-04:00In response to the present desultory state of affairs, we are now seeing some encouraging developments. Call it The Van Cliburn Effect. Shortly after Sputnik put the USSR ahead of the US in the space race, Van Cliburn surprised the world by winning the Tchaikovsky Competition. The judges were afraid to cast their votes without Krushchev’s apporval, and so they consulted with him. Krushchev …A Moment for Chinese Musichttps://www.rogershapirofund.org/blog/a-moment-for-chinese-music/2018-05-28T00:00:00-04:00A Triumph for Chinese Music
LIU Li — LIANG Nan — Zhang CHUN — Tan Dun
Beijing Modern Music Festival Hosts ISCM World Music Days, 2018 in Beijing
This is a personal response to the 2018 Festival and does not reflect an official Roger Shapiro Fund positon.
May 20 to 26 in Beijing, at beautiful state-of-the-art concert halls at Beijing Central Conservatory, and venues nearby, the …