- Enjoyed listening to these. They are original and imaginative - accessible but they promise more discoveries on subsequent listenings. I'll definitely look for performances of his work in the Bay Area to hear live.
- I really wanted to like this, and was sure I would at the first few measures. I happen to love big over-the-top multi-layered opulent unusually orchestrated heavily textured music - so thought for sure this would excite and transport me. But instead I found it disappointingly conventional and rather dull.
I have no formal training in music - just someone who listens to alot of music - mostly 20th/21st century - not just classical but jazz, 'creative', folk, world, rock, too. Music for me needs to do one of two things - it either needs to bring me back to a place I haven't been in awhile - a place which re-centers my being and puts all my insides back in order - such as last fall's four hour long solo Terry Riley concert at the Berkeley Art Museum, or it needs to take me to the edge of a new vista I've never seen before - such as Sofia Gubaidulina's amazing piece at the SF Symphony which I can almost still taste even though I heard it only once (no recording) over a year ago. I want music to open my perceptions to a world I can't get to any other way. And I don't necessarily want it to be one I've visited too often before or which landscape I find flat and unimaginative.
I feel like this composer needs to let loose more (I realize that sounds odd in this context since it's so much looser than many of the other composers on this site), and have more to say - that it's not just the trappings of using fun orchestration (which I do like) - it also needs to have somewhere to go and for a reason.
- I've been listening to Mattingly's music for years. It is always fresh and exciting - it never sounds like anyone else except him and it is always exploring new territories. Never boring and always evolving- using all the idioms of music he hears from rock to folk to jazz to classical to world music, without a sense of separation or judgmental classification . The one constant is a sense of joy and wonder in life and an exuberant pleasure in being alive.
- Too bad you can't just commission all 60 composers. There's something discomforting about setting 60 earnest hopeful 'emerging' composers against each other - when really we and they would all like to just build support for new classical music and increase the audience, and the opportunities for everyone.
- To William Bolcom - I've been describing this competition as this summer's American Idol, as well. With some Survivor thrown in, as well. Best thing would be to have the funds to commission all 60 composers!
- Having trouble hearing the connection with the French House music. Have to admit my interest in the piece was still driven by the harmonies and rhythms despite your best efforts!
