Charles Amirkhanian interviews composer Terry Riley (Colfax, California, 1935) at his home in Northern California on June 11, 1983. Riley describes his early childhood experiences with music, his life as a student in San Francisco and his first experimentation with serial and then minimal composition. He goes into great detail about the processes that led to his seminal work "In C". Riley describes his early collaborations with others and his later tendency to work alone. Both Charles and Terry lament the fact that growing up in rural California there was little chance to be exposed to classical music. Riley also discusses his exploration of musical traditions from around the world, and in particular his affinity for Asian and Indian music and Eastern spiritual philosophies. Terry also discusses the influence that Pandit Pran Nath had on his life and music.
Il s'agit d'extraits d'un long documentaire sur Igor Stravinsky réalisé en 1981 pour une chaîne publique de télévision française (à l'époque "France Régions 3", devenue "France 3") par François Reichenbach. Outre le compositeur lui-même, ils permettent de voir et d'entendre, évoquant ce dernier, sept personnalités qui toutes, sauf Henri Sauguet, s'expriment à plus d'une reprise.
Par ordre de première apparition, ces personnalités sont : 1.- [00:46] Théodore Stravinsky (peintre, fils aîné d'Igor); 2.- [01:05] Henri Sauguet (compositeur -- unique apparition); 3.- [03:27] Alexandre Tansman (compositeur); 4.- [05:59] Pierre Boulez (compositeur et chef d'orchestre); 5.- [08:51] André Tubeuf (écrivain, philosophe et critique musical); 6.- [17:44] Georges Auric (compositeur); 7.- [23:16] Arthur Rubinstein (pianiste).
Charles Amirkhanian talks with composer Lou Harrison (Portland, 1917 - Lafayette, 2003) about his recent work. Harrison had just completed a semester of teaching at Mills College, as holder of the Milhaud Chair in composition. Most of this program is devoted to Harrison's work with gamelan music, and a number of selections from his album released by CRI, are heard. Also participating in this program is Harrison’s partner William Colvig.
Charles Amirkhanian interviews composer Steve Reich (New York, 1936) in May of 1980. The interview begins with Reich giving a brief description of his childhood experiences as a piano student and member of a school band. He then plays two recordings of his “Music for a Large Ensemble”, highlighting the ways in which he revises a piece based on his ability to rehearse it, explaining that he always prefers to work with his own ensemble, perfecting a piece, before allowing it to be played by others. Reich then continues to focus on the ability for each performer to bring their own expression to Reich’s compositions, by playing two versions of his “Violin Phase” played at different tempos. In the second half of the program, Reich touches upon his renewed interest in Orthodox Judaism, including the chanting of Hebrew scripture, and how these studies have influenced his works such as “Octet”. The program ends with Reich’s “Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards” which is slightly scaled down from the full orchestral version that may be better known to most listeners. Al in all this is a fantastic look at what it takes to make a performance of Reich’s consonant minimal music shine.
A live guest appearance on KPFA by Los Angeles music lexicographer and former conductor Nicolas Slonimsky (Saint Petersburg 1894 - Los Angeles 1995). He talks with KPFA's Charles Amirkhanian about his family roots, superannuation, Varese, Ives, semism, pandiatonicism, and the extreme avant-garde in music.
The New Sound of Music is a fascinating BBC historical documentary from the year 1979. It charts the development of recorded music from the first barrel organs, pianolas, the phonograph, the magnetic tape recorder and onto the concepts of musique concrete and electronic music development with voltage-controlled oscillators making up the analogue synthesizers of the day. EMS Synthesizers and equipment are a heavily featured technology resource in this film, with the show's host, Michael Rodd, demonstrating the EMS VCS3 synthesizer and it's waveform output. Other EMS products include the incredible Synthi 100 modular console system, the EMS AKS, the Poly Synthi and the EMS Vocoder. Most of the location shots are filmed within the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop studios as they were in 1979. Malcolm Clarke demonstrates the Synthi 100, also known as the "Delaware", Michael Rodd demonstrates musique concrete by tape splicing and manipulation and Paddy Kingsland demonstrates tape recorder delay techniques (also known as "Frippertronics"). The Yamaha CS-80 analogue synthesizer is demonstrated by both Peter Howell and Roger Limb. The EMS Vocoder is also expertly put to use by Peter Howell on his classic "Greenwich Chorus" for the television series "The Body in Question". Dick Mills works on sound effects for Doctor Who using a VCS3 unit, and Elizabeth Parker uses bubble sounds to create music for an academic film on particle physics. Peter Zinovieff is featured using his computer music studio and DEC PDP8 computer to produce electronic variations on classic vintage scores. David Vorhaus is featured using his invention, the MANIAC (Multiphasic ANalog Inter-Active Chromataphonic (sequencer)), and playing his other invention, the Kaleidophon -- which uses lengths of magnetic tape as velocity-sensitive ribbon controllers. The New Sound of Music is a fascinating insight into the birth of the world of recorded and electronic music and features some very classic British analogue synthesizers creating the electronic sounds in this film. The prime location for these demonstrations is the BBC Radiophonic Workshop where much creativity and invention took place during the period the workshop was in operation in the latter part of the twentieth century. Electronic music today is used everywhere, and many musicians gain inspiration from the past, as well as delving into the realms of sonic structures and theories made possible by the widespread use of computers to manipulate sounds for the creation of all kinds of musical forms.
John Cage (Los Angeles, 1912 - New York, 1992) was undoubtedly the 20th Century composer who did the most to change the definition of the word “music”. In this program dedicated to Cage's work, which first broadcast on the composer's 65th birthday, Charles Amirkhanian presents a selection of his music which will attempt to dispel the popular notion that Cage’s philosophy of music is more interesting than the actual substance of his compositions. In the second half of the program Cage is heard answering a number of questions from a concert audience, in which he address the role of chance operations in his compositions as well as his opinions about the role of beauty in art.
In April of 1977 Charles Amirkhanian journeyed to Mexico City to talk with composer Conlon Nancarrow (Texarkana, 1912 - México D.F., 1997), who had settled there after a self-imposed exile from the United States, following the harassment he experienced over his involvement with the Communist Party, and his fighting in the Spanish Civil War. The two discussed the mechanics of composing for the player piano, a process of manually punching literally thousands of holes in long rolls of paper. Nancarrow also relates his association, or lack there of, with other composers, his dissatisfaction with the lack of temporal control in the electronic music of his day, and his experience studying counterpoint with Roger Sessions. Sounding very relaxed and genial, Nancarrow also goes into some detail about how he composes and describes some of his later works.
