KPFA-FM Music Dept. ➔ Speaking of Music: Robert Dick, Feb. 1, 1990, 1 of 2

Analog Audio

Event Type

Interview and Music

Origin

KPFA

Identifier

SOM.1990.02.01.c1.A

Program Series

Speaking of Music

Program Length

101 min

Part

1 of 2

Dates

1990-04-30 | broadcast
| 1990-02-01 | created

Description

Charles Amirkhanian interviews flute virtuoso Robert Dick on February 1, 1990 as part of the San Francisco Exploratorium’s Speaking of Music series. The program begins with Dick performing his piece "Flames Must Not Encircle Sides" which makes extensive use of circular breathing in order to continuously play a sustained note for minutes at a time without interruption. Dick then goes on to explain this and other techniques such as multi-phonics, alternate fingerings, and microtones, as well as giving a brief history of the instrument. All these techniques have been documented in his book “The Other Flute” in which he describes every possible sound one can obtain from a flute and how to produce them. Robert Dick then performs “Further Down” which has such an astounding range of sounds that an average listener would no doubt be hard pressed to guess that it was produced by a single flute if they had not heard it here first. Other works heard include "Heart of Light" for alto piccolo, "Look Out" which Dick composed for high school students, and "Another Look", a flute solo in the style of Jimi Hendrix. Also discussed in this highly informative program is the making of flutes, Indian flute music, and the flute in 20th century music.

Genres

20th century classical
Jazz

Musical Selections

Flames Must Not Encircle Sides (1980) (5:37) -- Further Down (1988) (3:50)

Performers

Robert Dick, flutes

Subjects

20th century classical
Jazz
Flute music
Piccolo music
Flute makers

Related places

San Francisco (Calif.) (was recorded at)
Berkeley (Calif.) (was broadcast at)

Related Entities

Amirkhanian, Charles
Dick, Robert, 1950-