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Books

The yes-no-maybe world of Harrison Birtwistle

A review of Harrison Birtwistle: Wild Tracks, a conversation diary with Fiona Maddocks. In search of a composer

31 May 2014

9:00 AM

31 May 2014

9:00 AM

Harrison Birtwistle: Wild Tracks Fiona Maddocks

Faber, pp.318, £22.50, ISBN: 9780571308118

For better or worse, we live in the age of the talking composer. Some talk well, some badly, a few — the strong, silent types — keep their mouths shut, or have to have them prised open. Harrison Birtwistle belongs, by nature, to this last category. I once, a very long time ago, interviewed him for a radio programme, mercifully pre-recorded.

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