Donald Satz <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>That's great news.  Now, would somebody please tell what type of music
>he composed?

Tough-edged romanticism, essentially; with a editor on maximum overdrive
(few composers could compress conventional musical structures as fiercely
as HS...  his nickname should'ave been Stuffit)...  not surprisingly, the
music is strong on rhythm & contrast; although the actual melodic material
will remain a personal taste (melodic material almost inevitably is).
Though a student of von Webern, Searle's sound is closer is spirit (&
impact) to English contemporaries such as Arnold, Frankel & Rawsthorne
(worth noting that all four were active film composers: Searle's finest
film score - _The Haunting_ - turns up periodically on Ted Turner's TNT
movie network; generally _not_ on the same days as World Championship
Wrestling); as well as Webern's own teacher, Schoenberg.  For a
first-timer, a taste for the music of Petterson might also be useful,
although the differences in scale & construction (HS could cram fully
developed 3 movement symphonies into a quarter of an hour) are significant.

Worth sampling; if cpo ever bothers to release the disc here....

All the best,

Robert Clements <[log in to unmask]>
<http://www.ausnet.net.au/~clemensr/welcome.htm>