RADIO SHOW #13: Dying Young, part 1: Three American Composers

This show, first broadcast on May 25, 2014, examines the music of three gifted and original American composers, all of whom died way too young: Charles T. Griffes, who reinvented impressionist techniques in his piano and orchestral music, only to die of complications from influenza at age 35 in 1920; Robert F. Graettinger, radical innovator who used Stan Kenton’s big band to perform his own visionary scores, but died from lung cancer at age 33 in 1957; and Eric Qin, composer of inventive and exquisite works, who was just coming into his own musically when he was killed by a hit-and-run driver at age 25 in 1993. The following compositions are heard:

CHARLES T. GRIFFES

The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan (1917)

Piano Sonata (1919)

ROBERT F. GRAETTINGER

Thermopylae (1947)

“Everything Happens To Me” (1949)

City of Glass (1951 version)

Suite for String Trio and Wind Quartet (1957)

ERIC QIN

Construction et Démolition (1992)

Photographs from Edward Weston (1990)

Tortoise (1991)

Link to:

Music: SFCR Radio Shows 2012–2018

For more on these composers, see:

Music Book: Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music, Second Edition

For more on Robert F. Graettinger, see:

Music: SFCR Radio Show #18, Gunther Schuller and Pierre Boulez at 90