John Corigliano (b. 1938)

"I'm interested in the way electronics can be combined with acoustic instruments" I told my teacher when aged 18 at a film music summer school at Goldsmiths' College, London. "Then listen to John Corigliano's score for Ken Russell's film Altered States (1981)" said Don Ray.

Being a poor student, it would be a few years before I could afford the recording. When I did get it, I never looked back. An explosion of sound and an aesthetically perfect combination of acoustics and electronics. The notes and the timbres interlinked seamlessly in a spectacular and moving whole.

I wrote to John Corigliano c/o his publisher some years later and a few weeks after, while in a music lecture at university, there was a knock at the door. The department secretary was there. "Sorry to disturb you, but there's a package for Mr Evans." John Corigliano had sent me a bag full of scores of his music. He had also sent a letter saying that he couldn't send the full score of Altered States as it was in bits. He did however send me the whole score of his suite from the film. I was so grateful I didn't know what to say.