Christopher Rouse

Christopher Rouse was best known for his large body of concertos and symphonic works. He was described as "the Stephen King of composition," since many of his works from the late 1980s and early 1990s dealt with issues of death, horror, tragedy, and mythology. Rouse's music was dramatic in an almost Mahlerian sense -- a side effect of which seems to be that his music was the loudest and boldest of his time. One orchestra playing his music called in OSHA because orchestra members thought the volume level was too loud and, therefore, unsafe. That said, Rouse wrote some of the mo...