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BD: Let's talk about some of your music specifically now. First of all, the Violin Concerto. Tell me a bit about this work.
AI: It was written a long time ago. Actually, it was completed in 1954, but it was begun even quite a bit before that. I interrupted it to write some other pieces. It was originally written just because I wanted to write a violin concerto. There was no firm commission from anybody. I was in my early thirties at the time, and it was a piece that I put a lot of work into. Then after I finished two movements of it, I did get some commissions for some chamber music, so I dropped it, and then somewhat later I came back and finished the last movement. It sat on the shelf for four years because there was no one who particularly wanted to perform it. Then when we opened our new music building at the University of California in Berkeley in 1958, there was some money from the university which was given out in order to have performances in the new auditorium. The San Francisco Symphony was going to be invited to give one of the opening concerts, and I asked to have this work included in the program. That's how it got its premiere. It went very well, and since then it has had a number of performances and it's been recorded.
BD: Are you optimistic about the future of music, then?
AI: Well, if looking at what's going on in the younger generation is any indication, yes I am optimistic, because I think there's a terrific amount of creativity. There are probably more composers than there are places to put them! That's the trouble — we've been turning out composers and performers, and the question is how many of them can the society absorb?
BD: That was the point of my previous question — are there too many composers?
AI: Well, in an economic sense there always are. You can't support everyone who wants to compose, so it is a competitive thing, and there are always too many, yeah.
BD: I want to thank you for being a composer!
AI: Well, thank you for your very searching questions. I hope I've given them answers that make some sense.
Interview with Bruce Duffie, April 26, 1986
BD: Let's talk about some of your music specifically now. First of all, the Violin Concerto. Tell me a bit about this work.
AI: It was written a long time ago. Actually, it was completed in 1954, but it was begun even quite a bit before that. I interrupted it to write some other pieces. It was originally written just because I wanted to write a violin concerto. There was no firm commission from anybody. I was in my early thirties at the time, and it was a piece that I put a lot of work into. Then after I finished two movements of it, I did get some commissions for some chamber music, so I dropped it, and then somewhat later I came back and finished the last movement. It sat on the shelf for four years because there was no one who particularly wanted to perform it. Then when we opened our new music building at the University of California in Berkeley in 1958, there was some money from the university which was given out in order to have performances in the new auditorium. The San Francisco Symphony was going to be invited to give one of the opening concerts, and I asked to have this work included in the program. That's how it got its premiere. It went very well, and since then it has had a number of performances and it's been recorded.
BD: Are you optimistic about the future of music, then?
AI: Well, if looking at what's going on in the younger generation is any indication, yes I am optimistic, because I think there's a terrific amount of creativity. There are probably more composers than there are places to put them! That's the trouble — we've been turning out composers and performers, and the question is how many of them can the society absorb?
BD: That was the point of my previous question — are there too many composers?
AI: Well, in an economic sense there always are. You can't support everyone who wants to compose, so it is a competitive thing, and there are always too many, yeah.
BD: I want to thank you for being a composer!
AI: Well, thank you for your very searching questions. I hope I've given them answers that make some sense.
Interview with Bruce Duffie, April 26, 1986
