William Duckworth

Composer William Duckworth carried the maverick tradition exemplified by composers such as Charles Ives, John Cage, and Harry Partch through the late 20th century and into the 21st. Becoming known as a pioneer of post-minimalism, he extended Cage's experiments and was a pioneer in Internet-based composition. In addition to composing, Duckworth was the author of five books, mostly on contemporary music, and the editor of two more. One of Duckworth's early works that gained widespread attention was the set of 24 Time Curve Preludes of 1977-1978. Duckworth's Southern Harmony, a set of 20 songs for double chorus, refers to the choral shape-note-singing tradition of the U.S. South. Duckworth died of pancreatic cancer in West New York, New Jersey, on September 13, 2012. By the early 2020s, about a dozen of his works had been recorded.