Books on Composers

Forthcoming:  Stirring Up the Music: The Life, Works, and Influence of Composer T(homas) J(efferson) Anderson, Jr. by John McDonald.


Larry Austin: Life and Works of an Experimental Composer by Thomas Clark. 

For over fifty years, composer Larry Austin (1930-2018) redefined what music is and could be through his experimental compositions. Working with hybrid musics, improvisation, and computer music, Austin created a wonderful and unique sound world. Austin had important associations with John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Leonard Bernstein and others. He co-founded and served as editor of  the journal, Source: Music of the Avant Garde. He is also well known for his completion/realization of Charles Ives’ Universe Symphony. In this compact biography and study of Austin's work, composer and theorist Thomas Clark introduces Austin’s life and times, and then provides important insights into the musical techniques, structures, and complex meanings Larry Austin created in his music.

Author Thomas Clark earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan where he studied with Leslie Bassett. He taught and served as Associate and Interim Dean of the College of Music at the University of North Texas, Dean at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and Director of the School of Music at Texas State University–San Marcos.  

Clark, Thomas. Larry Austin: Life and Works of an Experimental Composer. Raleigh: Borik Press, 2012.  ISBN: 978-0-9855654-0-4    $20 USD. Available HERE.



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