- Additional Authors
- Found In
- Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Description
- 1 streaming audio file (28 minutes) : digital, stereo
- Summary
- Merce Cunningham's acceptance speech for the Wexner Prize [awarded to Cunningham and John Cage (posthumously)]; Cunningham speaks about meeting John Cage at Cornish College [of the Arts] in 1938 while a student there; he speaks about being a member of Cage's percussion group at Cornish; more on Cage's artistic philosophy; he introduces Carolyn Brown in the audience, briefly describes her as a dancer and tells an anecdote about her and Cage while on a [Merce Cunningham Dance Company] tour in a Volkswagon bus; another anecdote about driving the VW bus in a snow storm with the Company while on tour; Cunningham briefly describes his first performance program with Cage in 1944; Cage's prepared piano works for that evening, including the compositional structure of Root of an unfocus (1944); independence and interdependence between the music and the dance in their work together; he describes a lecture-demonstration given with Cage in the late 1940's; he tells a brief anecdote about dancer, Marianne Preger[-Simon]; an anecdote about an experience he had while being a dance student at Cornish; the artistic ideas that he shared with Cage, including the way these translated into aspects of the performances; Cage's regular "uniform" and reasons why he selected those particular clothes; more on Cage's interests, especially in mycology; Cunningham's interest in exploring the wide range of human movement; briefly, on continuing to create works after Cage's death; an anecdote about travel difficulties while on a performance tour in the late 1940's; several anecdotes about Cage, including one on rehearsing for his Circus on, the eventual music for Cunningham's Roaratorio (1983); more on the composition of Circus on, and briefly, the first performance of Roaratorio; an anecdote on the creation of Inlets 2 (1983); briefly, his thoughts on setting his works on other dance companies and student groups; preparations for the 1964 world tour, including anecdotes on David Vaughan and his search for international presenters; he introduces Harvey Lichtenstein in the audience and describes a set of performances given by his Company at the Brooklyn Academy of Music; an anecdote on a conflict between the Company musicians and the electricians union at BAM, and the resulting performance done in silence; the satisfaction he receives from creating movement phrases; concluding remarks and the end of the speech, ca. 23:11; recording silence ca. 23:12-24:37; awards ceremony continues with [E. Gordon] Gee, Ohio State University president, giving a brief speech, including his announcement of the purchase of Changing steps (1973) to be performed by Ohio State University dance students.
- Alternative Title
- Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Audio materials.
- Subjects
- Genre/Form
- Award presentations (Sound recordings)
- Speeches.
- Note
- Title, date and location provided by cataloger based on handwritten note on original cassette, audition, and information provided by the Merce Cunningham Trust.
- Handwritten note on original cassette: "Merce's acceptance speech".
- Sound quality is good.
- Access (note)
- Patrons can access streaming audio only on site at NYPL Research Libraries.
- Source (note)
- Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation
- Linking Entry (note)
- Forms part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Call Number
- *LTC-A 1408
- OCLC
- 913885988
- Author
Cunningham, Merce, speaker.
- Title
Merce Cunningham's acceptance speech for the Wexner Prize of the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University, 1993.
- Production
1993.
- Playing Time
002749
- Type of Content
spoken word
- Type of Medium
audio
- Type of Carrier
audiocassette
online resource
- Digital File Characteristics
audio file
- Event
Recorded at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 1993.
- Restricted Access
Patrons can access streaming audio only on site at NYPL Research Libraries.
- Original Version
Archival original: (1 audio cassette (28 minutes) : analog) in *LTC-A 1408.
- Linking Entry
Forms part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Local Note
Transferred from original analog cassette by George Blood Audio on March 25, 2015.
- Source
Gift; Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, 2011-2012.
- Connect to:
- Added Author
Gee, E. Gordon (Elwood Gordon), 1944- speaker.
Wexner Center for the Arts.
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, donor.
- Added Title
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Audio materials.
- Found In:
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
- Research Call Number
*LTC-A 1408