Popular Perception
Though well established and widely respected in the classical music world – modules on his music now feature in many university undergraduate music courses – Birtwistle was relatively unknown to the general public until the mid-1990s. Although he had been honoured with a knighthood in 1988, two events brought him to public attention.
A group of anti-modernist musicians, including composers Frederick Stocken and Keith Burstein calling themselves "The Hecklers," organised a demonstration for the first night of the 1994 revival of Gawain at the Royal Opera House, London. They attended the performance and at its conclusion broke into a tirade of catcalls as part of their campaign to rid contemporary music of anything post-Romantic. Their criticism turned a relatively unimportant revival into a controversial event that attracted greater interest than it otherwise might have.
Birtwistle gained notoriety in 1995 when Panic was premièred on a live BBC television broadcast, in a prominent and unusual setting, on the second half of the Last Night of the Proms, which traditionally features mainstream, popular and patriotic music.
He is a member of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA),
Read more about this topic: Harrison Birtwistle
Famous quotes containing the words popular and/or perception:
“The best of us would rather be popular than right.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe anything but the perception.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)