Charles Dodge, Speaking Of Music at the Exploratorium

Exploratorium - 27.02.1986

Charles Amirkhanian

Charles Dodge (Iowa, 1942) interviewed by Charles Amirkhanian at the Exploratorium's Speaking of Music Series in San Francisco, February 27, 1986.

Charles Amirkhanian hosts an evening with electronic music composer Charles Dodge. Dodges stated intent is to discover new ideas by experimenting with new technology. He elaborates on the technical aspects of his computerized music, which extends human speech into realms not possible without the aid of technology. Along with computer synthesis, Dodge uses the compositional technique of the found object.

Dodge explains in detail his creation of the compositions heard in this program, which include: Speech Songs (using the synthesized speech of Dodge reading poems by Mark Strand); Any Resemblance is Purely Coincidental (synthesized aria sung by Enrico Caruso); The Waves (composed for Joan La Barbara, based on text from Virginia Woolfs novel); Profile, A Musical Fractal (a musical analogy to a geometrical fractal form).

Entrevista a John Adams

Morning Concert - 20.02.1986

Charles Amirkhanian

Composer John Adams (Worcester, 1947), who was working on his opera, Nixon in China, talks with Charles Amirkhanian on the state of contemporary music. Interspersed in this free-ranging conversation are examples of music brought by both Adams and Amirkhanian to illustrate the topics discussed. Adams' composition, Harmonielehre, commissioned and recorded by the San Francisco Symphony under Edo de Waart, had just been released. The album received a nomination in the contemporary music category for a Grammy Award.