KPFA-FM Music Dept. ➔ Ode To Gravity: 15th Anniversary Program, 2 of 2
Analog Audio
Event Type
Interview and MusicOrigin
KPFAIdentifier
OTG.1985.03.04.BProgram Series
Ode To GravityProgram Length
123 minPart
2 of 2Dates
1985-03-04 | broadcast| 1985-02-28 | created
Description
On March 4, 1970 Charles Amirkhanian broadcast the first in a series of programs called “Ode to Gravity”. The focus of the program was avant-garde and contemporary music, with significant forays into the realms of poetry and experimental literature, as well as visual and performance art. Initially inspired by a live theater piece by Amirkhanian, in which assorted objects ranging from a marble to a mattress to a car fender were dropped from a balcony into a circle of spectators, the radio program, “Ode to Gravity” became the longest running avant-garde music show on American radio. In this 15 year retrospective you will hear excerpts from past programs, including the first. These include the sound poetry of Liam O'Gallagher; Leonard Bernstein’s Clarinet Sonata; James Petrillo’s city wide chess happening; John Dinwiddie’s and Phil Corner’s avalanche of pianos from a Berkeley piano shop; George Antheil’s Pianola Rolls; an interview with composer Ivan Wyschnegradsky; as well as an installation and live concert by Bill Fontana & Stuart Dempster. (from KPFA Folio)Genres
Avant-gardeSound poetry
Musical Selections
Experimental Dada Poetry / Raoul Hausmann -- If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso (1923) / Gertrude Stein -- Geographic Fugue (1930) (2:50) / Ernst Toch -- Ballet Mécanique [excerpt] (1923-25) / George Antheil -- Also Sprach Zarathustra [excerpt] / Ivan Wyschnegradsky -- Fog Calling / Stuart Dempster & Landscape Sculpture with Foghorns / Bill Fontana [excerpt of both pieces playing simultaneously]Performers
The Abbey Singers (Geographic Fugue)Subjects
Avant-garde (Music)Sound poetry
Text-sound compositions
Player piano music
Microtonal music
Quarter-tone piano
Unconventional instruments
Related places
Berkeley (Calif.) (was recorded at)Berkeley (Calif.) (was broadcast at)
Related Entities
Amirkhanian, CharlesHausmann, Raoul, 1886-1971
Stein, Gertrude, 1874-1946
Toch, Ernst, 1887-1964
Antheil, George, 1900-1959
Wyschnegradsky, Ivan, 1893-1979
Fontana, Bill, 1947-
Dempster, Stuart