George Rochberg, RIP.

[kenjari]

Composer George Rochberg died on Sunday at the age of 86. Admittedly, I am not overly familiar with his music, but what I have heard, I like a lot. I also admire him for being one of the first American composers to break with the dominant serialist, modernist style of the mid-20th century. While I do find serialism to be an interesting and occasionally useful technique, I agree with Rochberg that it "allowed us only a postage-stamp-sized space to stand on". My thanks to him for his wonderful music and for helping to make a larger space for me to stand on.