|
|
Article: Cool and composed; John Harbison learned a long time ago that his own way was the best way.(FREETIME)
- Article from:
- Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
- Article date:
- March 2, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Star Tribune Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Teachers don't always have the best advice.
Take the case of John Harbison, the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer. Members of the music faculty at Princeton University, where Harbison earned a master of fine arts degree in the late 1960s, booed after the performance of one of his instrumental pieces. Earlier, Walter Piston, a teacher and eminent composer, told young Harbison that he shouldn't even think of becoming a composer.
Perhaps the unkindest cut of all came when a fellow student, having heard some of Harbison's music, said, "You're sort of a tune man, aren't you?" - a verdict, as Harbison recalled recently, to be received with a sense of funereal ...