Sonic Mosaics: Conversations with Composers [Paperback] Steenhuisen, Paul

Product Description It is a common misconception that it is difficult or impossible to discuss music, that a piece of music simply speaks to the listener-or not. Paul Steenhuisen, in conversation with composers, offers readers insight into the creative process, and ways of listening and entering into works of new music. Steenhuisen, himself a composer of merit, talks one on one with thirty-two of his contemporaries-twenty-six of whom are Canadian-with a colleague's candour, sympathy, and expertise. These rare intimations afford fellow composers, musicologists, students, and inquisitive listeners a comparative look into the lives of the people who write some of the most innovative, challenging, and sublime music today. Composers Interviewed: R. Murray Schafer; Robert Normandeau; Chris Paul Harman; Linda Catlin Smith; Alexina Louie; Omar Daniel; Michael Finnissy; John Weinzweig; Udo Kasemets; Pierre Boulez; Barbara Croall; James Rolfe; John Beckwith; Yannick Plamondon and Marc Couroux; George Crumb; Peter Hatch; John Oswald; Francis Dhomont; Martin Arnold; Helmut Lachenmann; Juliet Palmer; Christian Wolff; Mauricio Kagel; John Rea; Gary Kulesha; Howard Bashaw; Christopher Butterfield; Keith Hamel; Jean Piché; James Harley; Hildegard Westerkamp; Review "And on those nights when it is absolutely too cold to go out, I'll most likely be curling up with Paul Steenhuisen's new book Sonic Mosaics: Conversations with Composers. Beyond being a highly accomplished composer in his own right, Steenhuisen is also a recognized interviewer of his creative colleagues. Over numerous years, he has conducted and recorded dozens of one-on-one conversations with some of our country's leading composers (many of which appeared in these pages between 2001 and 2005). Now, after much anticipation, these insightful interviews are available in one volume. Paul’s well-documented conversations offer the reader entry into the creative process and ways of listening to new musical works. He calls on his own experience as a composer to lend these 32 interviews a colleague's openness, understanding and expertise." Jason van Eyk, Wholenote, February 2009"Steenhuisen shows an understanding of the work of everyone he interviews, no matter what their musical style. This especially pays off with an experimental composer like John Oswald, whose technique of plunderphonics challenges traditional approaches to composition. Things get lively when he asks Oswald whether his pieces have an expiry date. Steenhuisen's questions are thought-provoking, and his thorough preparation allows him to follow wherever the subject takes him. A surprising answer can turn things in an entirely different direction....[M]any things in this important book have been particularly well-considered, from the design, the photos and the cover art, to the discography, annotations, and index (which even has an entry for playfulness)." Pamela Margles' BookShelf, Wholenote Magazine, March 30, 2009 (full entry at http://thewholenote.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=56&Itemid=52)"[I]f you want to find out about recent developments in Canadian contemporary composition, Sonic Mosaics is where to go." Philip Clark,The WIRE, May 2009"The reader is impressed by the intellectual prowess of so many underrated creators, and the special relationship between composers gives the work more substance. [If] one is interested in Canadian music, or composers who seem preoccupied by music history, they would be well-advised to look into Steenhuisen's book. Special praise is to be given to the Lachenmann interview, which captures the essence of his work in a simple, elegant and moving way." René Bricault, La Scena Musicale, May 2009"Paul Steenhuisen carried out a series of 31 excellent interviews with Canadian and international composers beginning in 2001. The book runs the gamut from Schafer to Boulez, and includes composers of all generations. So much of a good interview depen