Elliott Carter
Post-War · 1908–2012
Elliott Carter was a New Yorker who got his first push from Charles Ives, the insurance executive and composer who befriended him as a teenager and vouched for him when he applied to Harvard. Like many Americans of his generation he finished his training in Paris with the teacher Nadia Boulanger.
His early music was approachable and American in flavor, but around 1950 he changed course, developing a dense style in which instruments behave like independent characters, each moving at its own speed and temperament, arguing and interrupting. It made him a central figure in postwar modern music, admired by performers who enjoy a challenge. Born in 1908, he kept composing almost daily past his hundredth birthday and died in 2012 at 103.
Fair warning: this is knotty music, better met with curiosity than with expectations of a tune. Start with the Concerto for Orchestra, then, if you are game, the String Quartet no. 4.
85 works in the catalog, across 5 genres. Log what you listen to with Opus, the classical music journal for iPhone.
Chamber
- String Quartet no. 4
- 3 Duetti, for violin and cello
- 4 Lauds, for violin
- 8 Etudes and a Fantasy, for woodwind quartet
- 8 Pieces for 4 Timpani
- A 6 Letter Letter, for solo oboe or english horn
- A Sunbeam's Architecture, for chamber orchestra
- Bariolage, for harp
- Brass Quintet
- Canon for 3 Equal Instruments: in Memoriam Igor Stravinsky
- Canon for Four: Hommage to William, for flute, bass clarinet, violin, and cello
- Cello Sonata
- Changes, for guitar
- Con Leggerezza Pensosa, Omaggio a Italo Calvino, for clarinet, violin and cello
- Double Trio, for chamber ensemble
- Elegy
- Enchanted Preludes, for flute and cello
- Esprit Rude; Esprit Doux, for flute and clarinet
- Figment, for cello
- Figment II, for cello
- Figment IV, for viola
- Figment no. 1, for cello
- Figment no. 2, 'Remembering Mr. Ives', for cello
- Figment no. 4, for viola
- Figment V, for marimba
- HBHH, for solo oboe
- Hiyoku, for two clarinets
- Immer Neu, for oboe and harp
- Inner Song, in Memory of Stefan Wolpe, for oboe
- Luimen, for trumpet, trombone, vibraphone, mandolin, guitar and harp
- Mnemosyne, for violin
- Mosaic, for harp and 7 instruments
- Oboe Quartet, for oboe and string trio
- Pastorale, for english horn and piano
- Quintet for Piano and Winds
- Retracing, for bassoon
- Rhapsodic Musings, for violin
- Riconoscenza, for violin
- Rigmarole, for bass clarinet and cello
- Scrivo in Vento, for flute
- Shard, for guitar
- Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello and Harpsichord
- Steep Steps, for clarinet
- String Quartet no. 1
- String Quartet no. 2
- String Quartet no. 3
- String Quartet no. 5
- String Trio
- Tintinnabulation, for percussion sextet
- Trije glasbeniki, for flute, bass clarinet, and harp
- Triple Duo, for ensemble
- Woodwind Quintet
Keyboard
- 90+
- Caténaires
- Intermittances
- Matribute
- Night Fantasies
- Piano Sonata
- Retrouvailles
Orchestral
- Concerto for Orchestra
- Asko Concerto
- A Symphony of Three Orchestras
- Cello Concerto
- Clarinet Concerto
- Dialogues for Piano and Chamber Orchestra
- Holiday Overture
- Piano Concerto
- Symphonia: sum fluxae pretium spei
- Symphony no. 1
- Two Controversies and a Conversation, for piano, percussion and orchestra
- Variations for Orchestra
Stage
- What Next? Opera
Vocal
- 3 Poems of Robert Frost, for mezzo-soprano
- Emblems, for male chorus and piano
- Harvest Home
- Heart not so heavy as mine
- Let's Be Gay, for female chorus and 2 pianos
- Musicians Wrestle Everywhere, for chorus and strings
- Of Challenge and of Love, song cycle for soprano and piano
- Tarantella, for male chorus and orchestra
- Tempo e tempi, for soprano, oboe, clarinet, violin, and cello
- The Defense of Corinth, for chorus, for speaker, male chorus and piano, 4 hands
- To Music
- Voyage, for medium voice and piano
- Warble for Lilac-Time, for voice and piano
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