5196106041

MA KMIIKK 1981

\i:h JUSU

cc

KadioYisions”—XPK ’s Exploration of tlie World of Sound

An a(lventurous new series oj)cns broadcasting vistas

Joaii la Barbara

*. t -

RadioVisions, an advcntur-ous concept in preseniing ncw musie and audio art lo the listening audience, premiered i his October on the National Public N^twork, and continues throughout the season. Jointly funded through public and private sources, tłiis fourtcen-part series offars a widc vicw of what is currently hap-pening in the world of sound, in addi-tion to giving sonie historical pcrspcc-tive. Each hour-long program covers a different theme and was produced as an individual entitv within the overall series. Gunthcr Schuller servcs as the generał host, but each program has its own commcntator, cnabling different views to be presented.

“Henrv Cowell: The (Jentle

4

Pioneer” of>ens the series. It presents biographical details along with musical examples in a documentary format which overlavs sonie illustrations throughout the information given in interviews with Cowell, his wifc, and nota bies acquainted with CowelFs life and work. While scrving as the model and inspiration for the Radio-( isions series, it is morę didactic in style and content than most of tlie programs.

C)ral history

CC^TAhc Elder Statesmen" presents 1 port raits of (ive octogenarian American composcrs: Ernst Bacon, Leo Orenstcin. Dane Rudhvar. Nich-

4

olas Slonimsky, and Virgil Thomson. Each man comments anecdotally on his work and on the development of a ncw American musie. The individual vicws combine to make a significanl

contribution to the orał historv of

*

i went ie t h -cen t ury cu 11 u re in A merita.

Cowell: “gentlc pioncor”

In “Keyboard Innovations” we hear from instrument builders as weII as from composcrs who did much to “re-invent” the piano. Conlon Nan-carrow, an American who has spent the ycars sińce the Spar.ish Civil War living in exile in \1exico, speaks about his revolutionarv work with

4

player pianos. 1750 Arch Records has a fascinating collection of his player piano pieees available for those whose appetites are whetted by the musical cxamples offered on the program. Lou Harrison discusses various cxperiments he madę with the piano. removing certain strings and placing tacks in the instrument to achicve different tonę colors. John Cage comments on philosophical is-sues in his spccial, gcntly magnetic manner. His parlicular innovations in prepared piano complctcly trans-formed tłu* wav we think about tlie

4

keyboard instrument. David Rosen-

4

boom, a pianist and audio rcscarch scientist. helped develop a new elec-tronic keyboard instrument, the To uchę, with electronics wizard Don Buchla. I he Touche combines vari-ous asfjects of synthesizers and com-puters into an ultimate real-time keyboard performance instrument.

An eight-track audio collage, created from various realizations of a single melodie theme along with commentary from ten professional musicians from different back-grounds, forms tłu* basis for Peter (iordon’s “Shoptalk.’* John Giorno and Diurie Anderson are represented by language and rhythmic sound-works in the program called “Details at Klcven.”

“'Hie Oldcst Instrument.” is a wide-ranging study of uses of the voice from li bet a n monks, Balinese monkey cham. and other ethnic mar-vcls, through Charles lvesand on into cxperimcntal or “extended“ vocal techniques as used in contemporary musie and soundart.

Four composer-conductors. I^onard Bernstein. Aaron (-opland, Lukas Foss, and Gunther Schuller, discuss the creativc interaction be-tween these related but highly different professions in “The Composer as C’onduclor.”

Direetions taken

U\ t usic in Rcaction: The New

JA 1 Consonance” traces the di-rection taken by a significanl number of composcrs, rcacting against the twelve-tone school of Schoen berg and Webern. Comments by Stcvc Reich, Harold Budd, and Brian Eno illus-tratc pcrsonal tendcncies, and their