John McCabe

[peterthekeys]

But quite ridiculous in the case of John McCabe, who was, by any norms, really quite a conservative composer for his era, when one compares music he has composed with others' for brass bands, including Iain Hamilton, and Sirs Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle.

I'd comment that McCabe is conservative in the sense that he wasn't avant garde (e.g. trying to reject everything which had gone before and doing something completely new - which in my view is a dead end, because one just ends up trying to do the opposite of what went before.) But he constantly experimented with new ideas and techniques (I now have the scores of all 13 of his piano studies - studies in compositional technique and piano sonority rather than piano exercises - and I'm starting to work on them: their range and scope is just breathtaking, almost requiring a complete re-evaluation of pianistic technique.)

Also, McCabe was never averse to writing a good tune and delicious, melting harmonies when the occasion seemed to demand it.