Research Catalog

Interviews with Heinz-Klaus Metzger and David Vaughan

Title
Interviews with Heinz-Klaus Metzger and David Vaughan 1987-11-13
Publication
1987

Available Online

NYPL Digital Collections

Details

Additional Authors
  • Metzger, Heinz-Klaus
  • Vaughan, David, 1924-
  • Caplan, Elliot
  • Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation donor.
Found In
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
Description
1 streaming video file (87 min) : sound, color
Summary
An interview conducted by Merce Cunningham Dance Company archivist David Vaughan with German music critic and theorist Heinz Klaus Metzger, regarding his personal and working relationships with John Cage and Merce Cunningham. Vaughan begins by asking Metzger about the early years of his association with Cage and Cunningham, and their first project together, translating Cages texts and writing critical works as part of introducing his work to a German, as well as larger European, audience. He then discusses how that connection has endured over time, up to his then recent collaboration with Cage on an opera, Europera 1 and 2, commissioned for the Frankfurter Opera. (9:10) Following discussion of the dramatic and unexpected roadblocks encountered while staging the work, Metzger discusses the interaction of the European singers and musicians with the challenging new piece. This is extrapolated by Vaughan into a wider discussion of the difficulties performers from outside the Cage/Cunningham milieu have had in relating to their creative methods. (16:00) Metzger is then asked to relate his initial reactions upon first hearing Cages work in the 1950s, with special focus on the similarities and differences to the output of European composers of the period. (18:10) He then speaks about his personal experience of Cage as a friend. (21:01) He then discusses his first impressions of Cage and Cunninghams frequent collaborator, David Tudor. (26:40) This segues into a consideration of the Cage/Cunningham collaboration over the decades, its influence on other choreographers, and the difficulties many more conventional audiences encounter in responding to their work. (27:39) Cage and Cunninghams wider influence on artistic fields and cultural movements outside the worlds of dance and music, on both a local and global level, is then discussed. (30:29) Following the end of the interview, a series of German newspapers detailing the opera house fire that has caused the need for a new venue for the Cage/Cunningham piece are shown for an extended period. (41:40) After this, David Vaughan is interviewed while aboard the Paris-to-Metz train en route to a series of John Cage concerts. He is asked about his first visit to New York in 1950 and his earliest encounter there, as a student, with Merce Cunningham and John Cage, among other early dance-related experiences within the dance and art scenes of the time. (50:51) Vaughan then speaks about the major contributions Cunningham has brought to dance choreography. (1:01:41) The conversation shifts to a discussion of Cages influence on Cunninghams work and the broader world of the arts in general. (1:04:20) Vaughan then speaks about the reasons he is interested in both ballet and modern dance simultaneously. ( 1:14:50) This broadens into a discussion of the history of and activities involved in his work as a historian and archivist at the Cunningham Dance Company. (1:16:45) The remainder of the material consists of city footage from a moving car and footage taken inside the home of two older English-speaking Frenchwomen. From what is said, it appears that this was the home in which filmmaker Elliot Caplan was staying during the Cage season in Metz. (1:21:43)
Alternative Title
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Moving image materials.
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Dance.
  • Music.
  • Video.
  • Interviews.
  • Nonfiction films.
Note
  • Title provided by cataloger, based on review of media content.
Access (note)
  • Patrons can access streaming video file online only on site at the Library for the Performing Arts.
System Details (note)
  • Streaming video.
Source (note)
  • Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation
Linking Entry (note)
  • Forms part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
Call Number
*MGZIDF 5044
OCLC
950971464
Title
Interviews with Heinz-Klaus Metzger and David Vaughan 1987-11-13
Production
1987
Country of Producing Entity
Germany/France.
Type of Content
two-dimensional moving image
Type of Medium
video
computer
Type of Carrier
online resource
Performer
Heinz Klaus Metzger, interviewee; David Vaughan interviewer/interviewee; Elliot Caplan, interviewer/camera.
Event
Recorded 1987,13 November. Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Recorded 1987, 13 November. en route to Metz, France.
System Details
Streaming video.
Original Version
Original format: 1 videocassette (Video8) ; 8mm.
Restricted Access
Patrons can access streaming video file online only on site at the Library for the Performing Arts.
Linking Entry
Forms part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
Source
Gift; Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, 2011-2012.
Connect to:
NYPL Digital Collections
Added Author
Metzger, Heinz-Klaus, interviewee.
Vaughan, David, 1924- interviewee.
Vaughan, David, 1924- interviewer.
Caplan, Elliot, interviewer.
Caplan, Elliot, camera.
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation donor.
Added Title
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Moving image materials.
Found In:
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
Research Call Number
*MGZIDF 5044
View in Legacy Catalog