Threads Music by Carson Cooman - considered by PATRIC STANDFORD '... an ecstatic all American sound ...'

Carson Cooman is a composer currently living in Rochester, New York, who has written more than five hundred works, most of them (measured by the listings of his main publisher) in the last five years or so. Impressive -- even if there are barely a dozen of them lasting more than ten minutes, and a great many miniatures of about two or three minutes duration.

My misfortune is to be a little apprehensive about quantity on this scale, for it seems rather like factory farming. At least with Mozart there are a substantial number of works of unsurpassable genius rising from the routine mediocrity of about three quarters of his output. So young Cooman (I assume young, for neither sleeve notes nor web site give his age or details of musical training) may well be pursuing a trail toward future really outstanding achievements. The circumstances seem right. In 1998 he was awarded a fifteen-year Fellowship from the Broeker Fund for New Music 'for the creation of a series of new works', the early fruit of which included three of his most substantial works to date: Missa Ecclesiastica, a concerto for bass saxophone, and Water Music for organ (he is active as both organ and piano recitalist).

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