Elliott Carter (1908-2012) was an American composer whose long creative life made him one of the defining modernists of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Born in New York, he studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and developed a fiercely independent musical language.

Carter’s catalogue includes symphonies, concertos, chamber works, vocal music and five string quartets. His mature music is especially associated with rhythmic complexity, layered tempos and what became known as metric modulation.

Rather than treating rhythm as a single shared pulse, Carter often gives instruments their own identities and speeds, creating music that feels like an argument between vivid characters. The result can be demanding, but also exhilaratingly alive.

His late productivity was astonishing, with major works continuing to appear into his hundredth year and beyond. Carter’s music remains a bracing monument to intellectual energy, dramatic conflict and compositional nerve.