This program, first broadcast on October 16, 2012, discusses the transition in music from modernism to postmodernism and focuses on the three foundational figures in that evolution: Harry Partch, who designed and built his own instruments, which he tuned to a microtonal, 43-note-to-the-octave system; John Cage, who developed a methodology for chance and indeterminate composition, which allowed him to bypass his own tastes and memories and permitted the sounds in his music to be themselves; and Sun Ra, who derived both a persona and a philosophy based upon intergalactic travel, the Bible, and Egyptology, and who led his own jazz band, the Arkestra, for 40 years. Along with citations from their writings, as well as my own interviews with Cage and Sun Ra, the following music is heard:
HARRY PARTCH
A Dream (c. 1932)
Ulysses at the Edge (1955)
The Dreamer That Remains (1972)
JOHN CAGE
Music of Changes, Book I (1951)
Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (1951)
Inlets (1977)
SUN RA
Nuits de la Fondation Maeght, Vol. 1, “The Cosmic Explorer” (1970)
Link to:
Music: SFCR Radio Shows 2012–2018
For more on these composers, see:
Music Book: Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music, Second Edition
More Cool Sites To Visit! – Music
For more on John Cage, see:
Film Review: Prism’s Colors, The Mechanics of Time
Music Book: Soundpieces: Interviews with American Composers
Music Book: Sonic Transports – Glenn Branca essay, part 1
Music Lecture: “Intense Purity of Feeling”: Béla Bartók and American Music
Music: KALW Radio Show #3, Ancient China in 20th-Century Music
Music: SFCR Radio Show #19, The Percussion Ensemble
Music: SFCR Radio Show #22, Neo-Classicism, part 3
Music: SFCR Radio Show #25, Schoenberg in America
Music: SFCR Radio Show #29, Electro-Acoustic Music, part 1: New Instruments
For more on John Cage and Harry Partch, see:
Music Essay: The Beaten Path: A History of American Percussion Music
Music: SFCR Radio Show #8, Daoism in Western Music, part 1
For more on John Cage and Sun Ra, see:
Music Lecture: King of the Omniverse: Sun Ra and His Arkestra
Music Lecture: The Secret of 20th-Century American Music
For more on Harry Partch, see:
Music Essay: Anne LeBaron, Hyperopera, and Crescent City: Some Historical Perspectives
Music Essay: The Built Environment in American Music
Music: KALW Radio Show #5, Gender Variance in Western Music, part 1: Male-to-Female Representations
For more on Sun Ra, see:
Music Book: Soundpieces 2: Interviews with American Composers
Music: KALW Radio Show #1, A Few of My Favorite Things…
Music: SFCR Radio Show #9, Daoism in Western Music, part 2
Music: SFCR Radio Show #35, Electro-Acoustic Music, part 3: Musicians and Synthesized Sound
NICOLE V. GAGNÉ 