There’s the Bacon society, which is fostered by his fourth wife Helen Bacon, but I don’t know what kind of performances his music gets. He wrote symphonic music and some chorale music. – Carlisle Floyd
I’ve never set out consciously to write American music. I don’t know what that would be unless the obvious Appalachian folk references. – Carlisle Floyd
What is American music? The most satisfying answer I’ve come across is that it was a kind of natural comfort with the vernacular which is diverse and regional; it’s not one particular set of sounds. – Carlisle Floyd
I had all the normal interests – I played basketball and I headed the school paper. But I also developed very early a great love for music and literature and the theater. – Carlisle Floyd
The performances of my works in the last 10 years are probably equal to all the previous years put together. There are so many venues now and there is a completely new public for opera that’s grown up outside of the traditional core opera public. – Carlisle Floyd
If something is successful with the audience, it’s automatically suspect; the reverse is to say that not to reach audiences is the greatest compliment an artist can receive! – Carlisle Floyd
If an American audience is given a serious musical theater piece that is well produced, dramatically gripping and wonderfully acted, they’ll respond to it. – Carlisle Floyd
It’s necessary to track characters all the way through an opera. If you’re dealing with more than one or two characters, it’s very easy to forget that the others have lives of their own that feed into the story. – Carlisle Floyd
I was interested in what was really going on in Salem at that time, and I resolved to investigate this seemingly unorthodox treatment of the people and the period. – Carlisle Floyd
Socially I never was an outsider. I have never thought of the conflict element before frankly, but perhaps it was wanting to belong, and at the same time wanting to retain one’s own personality. – Carlisle Floyd
There is something inherent in our democracy that tends to want to level. America is a little uncomfortable in the presence of someone who is distinctly superior in whatever way. – Carlisle Floyd
Like any other composer of opera, I choose a subject not for polemical reasons, but because it contains vivid characters in highly charged dramatic situations. – Carlisle Floyd
We think the Puritans always dressed in black and white, which they didn’t. They loved very bright colors. And there were other differences in perceptions that gave one a very different view of them. – Carlisle Floyd
I find it enormously valuable to be sure that that the pacing is what I think it is and that the scenes have the shape I think they have musically and dramatically. – Carlisle Floyd
I found a certain kind of music congenial to me; it never occurred to me to write music that was academically acceptable. – Carlisle Floyd
The artist is something of an outsider in America. I have always felt that America does not value its artists, certainly not in the sense that the Europeans do. – Carlisle Floyd
Our most intimate contact with civilizations long since dust has been through the art which has survived them. – Carlisle Floyd
People in very high places suddenly fall, and we are always surprised because we don’t factor in the basic element that they’re humans and, therefore, they are flawed and have weaknesses. – Carlisle Floyd
The story of Willie Stark fascinated me because it was tackling the story of a man who outwardly has all the success one could possibly want and who is destroyed by his personal demons. – Carlisle Floyd
America tends to worship the modest talent because it doesn’t put us in an uncomfortable position vis-a-vis the artist. – Carlisle Floyd
Anyone who creates something new or does something different artistically is going to be singled out. – Carlisle Floyd
