Kevin Sutton wrote:

>... his later works became difficult for difficult's sake.

He always seemed to me to be a tortured character. At the premiere of
his 4th in Chicago, or rather at the talks beforehand, he could be seen
to be losing himself in some inner wrangling; he seemed in the grip of
some furious inner debate, with little contact with the outside world.
I believe he was trying to resolve as best he could technical musical
challenges and ethical conflicts -- he was always a convinced pacifist,
maybe moralist would be better word, hence always his own libretti.

His use of spirituals sticks in my mind (I must get my recordings out,
mainly on LP though) -- as I recall the 3rd symphony has a wonderful
movement with contralto[?] weaving around something based on one of the
spirituals ...

CR