Michael Daugherty (b. 1954)

Started by Maestro267, September 19, 2018, 08:05:44 AM

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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

Quote from: Maestro267 on September 20, 2018, 08:17:23 AM
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  8)  (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.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

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.
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff