Happy New Year! The Daily Classical Music Post has been on Substack for just over a year. Thank you to everyone who subscribes to and supports the DCMP. This January, I will be sharing some of the more popular posts from 2022 and 2023. A new theme will begin in February!
[First published 11 April 2023]
This April, the Daily Classical Music Post will look at composers who died during pandemics, as well as some who survived and a few who composed works to commemorate those who lost their lives.
“Most importantly, the epidemic was only news when it was not killing homosexuals.”—Randy Shilts
The American composer Robert Savage (1951–1993) died at the age of 42 from complications related to AIDS.
Savage began work on his “Sudden Sunsets” right after he learned that he was HIV+, and continued to work on it, completing it only just before his death. Bob Briggs writes, “At first hearing I found this piece to be difficult, but repeated hearings have shown me the beauty of the work. Starting with an elusive funky dance for violin and piano, bass clarinet and flute join in, obscuring the original music. An animated section follows, filled with tunes. A cello cadenza leads to a section of stasis and the work ends with a quasi-minimalist piece culminating in the most beautiful coda. It is a perfect composition.”
There are other works from this recording available on YouTube. As the liner notes say, Savage “was a composer who spoke in diverse languages-the dance rhythms of the Caribbean zydeco, Chopinesque keyboard flourishes, the lilt of 1930s and ’40s American popular song, Stravinsky's ostinati, the pulsing patterns of Minimalism-fusing them into a post-modern voice all his own.” Savage won many awards for his compositions, but during his lifetime most of his music was only performed at private gatherings, so he was not as well known as he should have been.
My classical music post for today is Robert Savage’s “Sudden Sunsets.”