In this collection of essays and interviews, nine gifted composers openly discuss their work.

" . . . Strickland's own deep involvement with the works of these composers [is] revealed by the questions and comments he poses in an appreciative, Paterian way. His profound pleasure in these works also leads him to scrutinize and challenge them intimately." —Publishers Weekly "This is an indispensable book about American music . . . " —Fanfare " . . . exhilarating . . . Any of the interviews in American Composers will stimulate your curiosity and appetite." —Hungry Mind Review " . . . not only engaging, but also a useful representation of the major compositional styles of the 1980s and their corresponding practitioners." —Notes Philip Glass, Keith Jarrett, Meredith Monk, and eight other active American composers reveal a broad spectrum of musical personalities in these candid, in-depth conversations. Witty and articulate, their remarks convey the great vitality, diversity, and distinctiveness of today's American music.

In the preface to his work, Rupert Hughes explains his motivation and method for writing this historical account of American composers. Being a musician himself, he was interested to know who of merit was a native composer. He found it difficult to obtain such information, so he resolved to research contemporary composers, listen to and read their scores and make his own judgements. This wide-ranging book is the result.

In 1972-73, Barney Childs embarked on an ambitious attempt to survey the landscape of new American concert music. He recorded freewheeling conversations with fellow composers, most of them under forty, all of them important but most not yet famous. Though unable to publish the interviews in his lifetime, Childs had gathered invaluable dialogues with the likes of Robert Ashley, Olly Wilson, Harold Budd, Christian Wolff, and others. Virginia Anderson edits the first published collection of these conversations. She pairs each interview with a contextual essay by a contemporary expert that shows how the composer's discussion with Childs fits into his life and work. Together, the interviewees cover a broad range of ideas and concerns around topics like education, notation, developments in electronic music, changing demands on performers, and tonal music. Innovative and revealing, Interviews with American Composers is an artistic and historical snapshot of American music at an important crossroads.

Including thirty-nine pieces for voice and piano created since 1968 by eighteen artists, ANew Anthology of Art Songs by African American Composers navigates a varied musical terrain from classical European tradi­tions to jazz and spirituals. With nearly half of the featured songs composed by women and with others by lesser-known and emerging composers, this im­portant collection offers a diverse, representative sampling of African American art songs and works to secure the places of these songs and artists in the canon of contemporary American music.

A sequel to the award-winning The Black Composer Speaks (Scarecrow Press, 1978), this exploration of the creative world of African American composers traces the lives and careers of 40 talented individuals and, in their own words, provides perspectives on a world that has been slow to recognize their remarkable contributions to classical music. The discussion places the music of these composers within the greater context of Western art music, but analyzes it through the lenses of sociology, Western concepts of art and taste, and vernacular musical forms, including spirituals, blues, jazz, and contemporary popular music. Each chapter is devoted to an individual composer, who discusses his or her musical training, compositional techniques and style, and the composer's personal philosophy as reflected in his or her music. A selected list of compositions for each composer is included, as well as a photo and sample of the composer's "hand." Banfield offers unprecedented insight into the history and influence of the African American composer with this documentary, which will appeal to everyone from the music scholar to the general reader.