Carlisle Floyd
Carlisle Floyd
Carlisle Floydis an American opera composer. The son of a Methodist minister, he has based many of his works on themes from the South. His best known opera, Susannah, is based on a story from the Biblical Apocrypha, transferred to contemporary, rural Tennessee, and is set in a Southern dialect...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth11 June 1926
CityLatta, SC
CountryUnited States of America
thinking lasts honestly
I think anything that is expressed directly and as honestly as possible will last.
writing sight people
It's amazing how fast generations lose sight of other generations. One of the first things the young composers who come to work with me say is that they want to write music people will like, instead of gaining their credentials by being rejected by the audience.
character two track
It's necessary to track characters all the way through an opera. If you're dealing with more than one or two characters, it's very easy to forget that the others have lives of their own that feed into the story.
character dramatic-situations opera
Like any other composer of opera, I choose a subject not for polemical reasons, but because it contains vivid characters in highly charged dramatic situations.
personality outsiders elements
Socially I never was an outsider. I have never thought of the conflict element before frankly, but perhaps it was wanting to belong, and at the same time wanting to retain one's own personality.
basketball school great-love
I had all the normal interests - I played basketball and I headed the school paper. But I also developed very early a great love for music and literature and the theater.
answers sound comfort
What is American music? The most satisfying answer I've come across is that it was a kind of natural comfort with the vernacular which is diverse and regional; it's not one particular set of sounds.
europe opera phenomenon
When I've seen my operas in Europe, they have always struck me as more American than when I hear them here. I can't tell you what that phenomenon is.
thinking shapes scene
I find it enormously valuable to be sure that that the pacing is what I think it is and that the scenes have the shape I think they have musically and dramatically.
opera ifs felt
If I felt that one of my operas did not come off I would certainly say so.
mother father
I was encouraged by my mother and, to a lesser extent, by my father.
successful artist compliment
If something is successful with the audience, it's automatically suspect; the reverse is to say that not to reach audiences is the greatest compliment an artist can receive!
writing age lasts
You can't possibly predict what will last or not. But once you attempt to write for the ages, you're doomed.
america democracy levels
There is something inherent in our democracy that tends to want to level. America is a little uncomfortable in the presence of someone who is distinctly superior in whatever way.