Tom Service at the Guardian is going to do a year-long series on contemporary composers. That's of course good. What I wonder about is his definition of "contemporary":
We've decided that to be eligible to make it into this new-music lineup, a composer has to be alive (er, obviously!), or born within the last 100 years.
I never understood if calling someone my contemporary meant they are still alive (Elliott Carter!), someone who was alive at some point during my lifetime (Samuel Barber!), or someone near my age (Sebastian Currier - nine days older than I am!). By the Tom Service rules, Samuel Barber would not be considered.
Currier's Scarlatti Cadences:
The outer sections take "Scarlatti-like" cadential formulas and expand upon them, creating delicate, sonorous and ephemeral textures, while the middle section emulates the percussive drive of many a Scarlatti sonata.
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