Composers Datebook™ is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes significant or intriguing musical events involving composers of the past and present, with appropriate and accessible music related to each.
Singleton in Atlanta
In the musical world, there are many creative people with innovative ideas, but far fewer with the ability and persistence to raise the funds necessary to realize their visions. Today, a tip of the hat to the late American composer John Duffy, who, in 1982, was President of Meet the Composer, an organization which secured funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and other foundations for a large-scale residency program that paired rising American composers with major American orchestras. The composers included John Corigliano, Joan Tower, Stephen Paulus, Christopher Rouse, Libby Larsen, and Alvin Singleton. Each wrote special works for their orchestras, works which were premiered and recorded as part of the program – a major career boost for any young composer. For example, Alvin Singleton was the composer chosen for the Atlanta residency, and on today’s date in 1988, that orchestra premiered his score entitled “After Fallen Crumbs.” The unusual title doesn’t refer to arts funding, however apt that may seem, but derives from an earlier choral piece by Singleton, whose text dealt with world hunger, and closed with the lines, “An ant can feed a family with the fallen crumbs of an elephant.”