by Barney Childs
with William Bolcom, Harold Budd, Joel Chadabe, Charles Dodge, William Hellermann, Sydney Hodkinson, Ben Johnston, Daniel Lentz, Alvin Lucier, Donald Martino, Salvatore Martirano, Robert Morris, Gordon Mumma, Loren Rush, Michael Sahl, Peter Westergaard, William Albright, Olly Wilson, Phil Winsor, Christian Wolff, Charles Wuorinen, Robert Ashley and Larry Austin
commentaries by Gayle Sherwood Magee, Virginia Anderson, Sara Haefeli, Frances White, James Pritchett, Jay M. Arms, Dave Headlam, John Schneider, Ronald Kuivila, Bruce Quaglia, Rob Haskins, Michelle Fillion, Stuart Dempster, David Neal Lewis, Jeffrey Perry, Horace J. Maxile, Jr., Peter Gena, Robert Fink, Kevin Holm-Hudson and Thomas S. Clark
edited by Virginia Anderson
introduction by Virginia Anderson
University of Illinois Press, 2022
eISBN: 978-0-252-05292-7 | Cloth: 978-0-252-04399-4
Library of Congress Classification ML390.I47 2022
Dewey Decimal Classification 780.922

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
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.