Ode To Gravity: Interviews with Hans Heinsheimer & Tom Johnson
Digital Audio
Event Type
Interview and MusicIdentifier
OTG.1975.12.31.c2Program Series
Ode To GravityProgram Length
76 minDates
1975-12-31 | broadcast| 402 | created
Description
From a program first broadcast on December 31, 1975, Charles Amirkhanian interviews two figures who were prominent in promoting contemporary classical and new music during the 20th century. The program begins with a half hour interview, recorded in October 1975, with Hans Heinsheimer, author of “Best Regards to Aida,” and one of 20th century music’s most important music publishing figures. Heinsheimer’s career spanned fifty years beginning with Universal Edition in 1923 and continuing through 1979 with Boosey & Hawkes and Schirmers. At the age of 75, Hans offers his reminiscences about publishing some of the most important modern operas and musical compositions, as well as his personal friendship with such luminaries as Béla Bartók, Ernst Krenek, Kurt Weill, and George Antheil. The program then continues with an interview, also recorded in New York City in October of 1975, with avant-garde composer and music critic Tom Johnson. Amirkhanian quizzes Johnson, who has written for the “Village Voice” and “Musical America,” about his role as one of the country’s only critics who writes exclusively about new music. Johnson remarks how avant-garde music, which was once primarily viewed as a radical challenge to tradition and audience expectations, has, as it becomes more accepted and commercially viable, begun to reexamine and even incorporate elements from the past. Correspondingly Johnson’s own music reviews have evolved from a basic promotion of the new, to now examine what is good about what is new. An example of this renewed focus on older musical forms, albeit in a still distinctly modern style, is Johnson’s own opera “A Masque of Clouds,” which premiered at the Kitchen in New York City in October 1975, a lengthy excerpt of which is included at the very end of this interesting and informative program.Genres
20th century classicalAvant-garde
Musical Selections
Masque of Clouds, An Opera in Three Acts and 132 Variations [excerpt from Act III] (1975) (19:00) / Tom Johnson [in collaboration with Robert Kushner]Subjects
20th century classicalAvant-garde (Music)
New music
Music publishing
Composers
Music -- History and criticism
Music critics
Operas -- Excerpts
Songs with instrumental ensemble
Related place
Berkeley (Calif.) (was broadcast at)Related Entities
Amirkhanian, CharlesHeinsheimer, Hans W., 1900-1993
Johnson, Tom, 1939-
Kushner, Robert, 1949-