First published in The Herald on 28 May, 2014
This week the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra devote a special two-day retrospective to the music of Elliott Carter. Giant of modernism, towering figure of contemporary classical music, Carter was an American who embodied the European avant-garde, an intellectual who – boldly, prolifically and usually with a twinkle in his eye – wrote music that is unashamedly erudite but shimmers with wit and character. While America was seduced by the thrumming primary colours of minimalism, Carter furrowed ahead with works of glittering intricacy. His music is like life itself, impossible to boil down into one set of chords or one homogeneous rhythm. He lived to 103 and composed profusely until just a couple of months before he died. “Writing music has just become a habit,†he once said. “I can’t give it up.â€