The Iowa Caucus was last night, or at least it was supposed to be. So the preeminent composer from Iowa, so far at least.... is Michael Daugherty, and his most famous piece is his symphony about Superman - the Metropolis Symphony, which premiered 26 years ago in Baltimore, right here where I'm writing.
There's a lot to say about Michael Daugherty, and about this symphony, but I'm not ready to group my thoughts together on all of it.... I will say that I truly love his music, more than any of the 'big three' in contemporary American composition of Glass, Reich, and Adams. His idiom is classical music about popular culture... think of it, American music that is actually about America - it gives his music the breath of modern life that is all too rare in our rarefied music; oxygen of which we could stand to bring in so much more. A symphony about comic books may sound like nothing more than a novelty, but it expresses something both very real and very American, both very funny and very moving.
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