"Beth Anderson writes pretty music - the prettiest music I know of, after Schubert, Faure, Debussy, and a few long-dead white males. Her prettiness is not an intellectual deficiency, but a political stance. "To make something beautiful," Anderson likes to say, "is revolutionary." Her web page lists her as a "neo-romantic, avant-garde composer," and she may be the only composer in the world who could justify both contradictory labels. Her music has the simplicity of that of Erik Satie or, even more, Virgil Thomson. It is listenable, melodic, fun to play. Such qualities often bring her into conflict with other composers. On one 12-tone-heavy musical festival, she says, after her lullaby was performed "everyone quit speaking to me." And yet her music is no throwback to an easy past, but radical on its own terms."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Kyle Gann (2001) "American Composer: Beth Anderson" in: CHAMBER MUSIC MAGAZINE, January 2001.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Beth_Anderson
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Beth Anderson
18 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Beth Anderson →
Related Quotes
"::s t u v w x y z"
"::j k l m n o p q r"
"The relationship of feminism to my work and the evolution of the form of my music are in violent flux."
"Regarding my childhood, my grandmother could play by ear and she loved to hear me practice and would say after every …"
"My own mystic bent leads me to believe that musical variations, collage, reiteration and process, or evolution, are b…"
"To make something beautiful is revolutionary (not low class, not easy, not a sign of low intelligence)."
"The idea that beauty is revolution is a revelation to me. I once believed that the concept of the music was more impo…"
"I've rediscovered the part of my brain that can't decode anything, that can't add, that can't work from a verbalized …"
"Beauty means perfect to me, but it also has an additional meaning having to do with being pleasurable, rather than pa…"
"Real music soars above class society."