Desert plants: Conversations with 23 American musicians

by Walter Zimmermann

See pictures of back cover for list of interviews.

Genres: Music

373 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Joel Workman]

Some very interesting parts and thought-provoking discussions, but also occasionally some sections which were a bit waffly and didn't make much sense -I suppose exactly what you'd expect from a book interviewing 20th-century American avant-garde composers.

[Hsu Jui-Ting]

This collection of interviews rambles a bit, where a more conventional book might put context and prefer concise sketches of these composers in question - but, in my opinion, this collection works because it allows these composers and free-thinkers to elaborate, on their own terms, the conditions and qualifications of their work in such a way that defy easy categorization. Even the ridiculous money-scrounging episode of La Monte Young's was contributed with permission - as is the wealth of excerpted scores and letters reprinted here. This is a true wealth and document of its times, and any aspiring artist/composer/figure fascinated by the avant-garde collective in America (and Toronto!) will find this essential reading.

[HelpPlus]

I read this book maybe 10 years ago from the san diego central library... I still think about it. I love the metaphor of american avant-garde composers being "desert plants" ... I had the pleasure of meeting Walter Zimmermann once in Boston after a concert of some of his music.

[Djll]

Zimmerman's command of English is endearingly incomplete, and the interviews sometimes ramble, but this is an essential glimpse of the American new-music scene in the early 1970's, absolutely unique and full of information to be found nowhere else. A lot of these musicians subsequently went on to become mainstays of the avant-garde and therefore much less interesting. These talks catch them when they were, for the most part, still scuffling and non-academic.