And here in the US, Elliott Carter is still producing new work
at the age of 98. Go figure.
Hal
On Nov 20, 2005, at 7:09 AM, Joanna Boulter wrote:
> Douglas wrote:
>
>
>>> After tonight's performance I am in no doubt that Joseph Haydn's
>>> 'The
>>> Creation' is a great work. It has enormous energy and vitality.
>>> Quite
>>> astounding when you think Haydn was well into his 60s when he
>>> composed it.
>>>
>
>
>
>> Hi Douglas: I am sure you mean well - and particularly within the
>> context
>> and age expectations of Haydn's era. I suggest such "surprises"
>> are much
>> less a surprise these days. More than a few of us still going full
>> blast and
>> - current statistics suggest, plagues etc. notwithstanding - many
>> of us are
>> looking at another 20 to 30 years on the main shift. An adventure
>> that is
>> re-defining careers, 'high points', etc. Haydn was just a
>> pioneer. (I
>> remember at University the Eng Prog in his thirties saying that
>> Yeat's -
>> such sexy work in his sixties - was a surprise). "Energy and
>> vitality", oh
>> yes, now that the kids are out the house! In fact, I say without real
>> knowledge, my impression is that in Japan, poets traditionally
>> have usually
>> become "awake" and most fully into their practice starting in
>> their sixties.
>>
>> Whoever "went gently"???!!
>>
>> Stephen V
>> http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
>>
>
>
> This is especially true of women, "now that the kids are out of the
> house". I really admire and envy those who can find the head-space,
> thinking-time, reading-time, pen-time, etc, to write really good
> stuff, at the same time as actually sorting out kids and partners
> competently and lovingly. But I think there ought to be an
> equivalent of the Gregory awards, not for the under-thirties this
> time but for poets over, say, fifty-five or sixty, who didn't get
> their chance before. A good proportion of these would be women, but
> by no means all, judging from the submissions we get for Arrowhead
> Press.
>
> As for the musical side, what about Thomas Tallis (1505-1585)?
> (Dunno if he had a wife and kids, though.) He lived, and composed,
> through the difficult not to say dangerous period of the
> Reformation, and with his pupil William Byrd laid the foundations
> of English church music. His Forty-Part Motet, "Spem in Alium
> Nunquam Habemus", is an amazing, mind-blowing experience.
>
> Then there's Verdi (1813-1901) -- Ken will know which was the opera
> he composed late on in his old age.
>
> This sort of extended creative life seems to me more impressive
> than the young prodigies. Well, I would do, wouldn't I, having
> missed the boat altogether with the latter!
>
> joanna
>
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