Michael Daugherty (b. 1954)

[Maestro267]

Was browsing through the Composer Index when I noticed there doesn't appear to be a thread for American composer Michael Daugherty. So here we are.

Daugherty frequently employs pop culture as inspiration for his works. Examples include the Metropolis Symphony, based on the Superman comics. He's also written concertos for percussion (UFO), piano (Deus ex Machina), organ (Once Upon A Castle) and violin (Fire and Blood), as well as symphonic odes to the cities of Philadelphia (Philadelphia Stories) and Detroit (Motor City Triptych). Thanks largely to the efforts of Naxos, Daugherty must stand as one of the most recorded of living composers.

[Maestro267]

To me, Daugherty's music is so vibrant and full of energy. It's a shame that it's probably his sources of inspiration that stop him from being taken seriously as a composer. Taking inspiration from entertainment rather than death, the usual font from which composers regularly imbibe.

[Karl Henning]

Taking inspiration from entertainment rather than death, the usual font from which composers regularly imbibe.

As a composer, I shall try not to take that as offensive    (But, you give me less reason than ever to seek out Daugherty's work.)

So, you offer entertainment, and you offer death;  I daresay I have found a third path.

[kyjo]

His Cello Concerto Tales of Hemingway is a superb, dramatic, and colorful work. It certainly gives lie to the notion that Daugherty isn't a "serious" composer.