“You have to put down what you feel...” says Composer Alvin Singleton

[Sing to the Sun: Chamber Music by Alvin Singleton, Troy 902 (2007)]


On March 1, 2008 NewMusicBox.org, The Web Magazine from the American Music Center, published a cover story “Alvin Singleton: Intuitions and Reminders”, “In conversation with Frank J. Oteri January 18, 2008 – 1:00 p.m." A brief videotaped segment includes musical fragments and is followed by a written interview in which Alvin Singleton says, for example:

“I can't speak for all of the music that I write, but I write music commissioned for that setting. When I sit down to write a piece, I think of the instrument that I'm writing for at the moment. I don't plan; I create spontaneously. In fact, I rarely do sketches. I sit down and I have material: it could be notes, it could be shapes. Then I improvise at the piano and everything grows from that. If it communicates, I'm happy. If it doesn't, I'm not unhappy because I've just followed my own instincts. I don't think you can create with somebody else in mind. You have to put down what you feel, what motivates you at the moment.”