- Additional Authors
- Bowers, Theresa
- Description
- Two streaming audio files (approximately one hour and 31 minutes): digital
- Summary
- Streaming file 1 (approximately 47 minutes). Hunter Johnson speaks with Theresa Bowers about his family background and his education, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Eastman School of Music; his decision to become a composer; his first encounter with modern dance, a performance by Martha Graham; his ideas about the relation of music and dance including with respect to the use of existing music compared with a commissioned score; his first impression of Graham; his work for Erik Hawkins; his collaboration with Graham on Letter to the world, by correspondence and at the Bennington College Summer School of the Dance; the work's premiere. In the course of speaking about his time at the Bennington College Summer School of the Dance, Johnson also briefly speaks about Louis Horst.
- Streaming file 2 (approximately 44 minutes). Hunter Johnson speaks with Theresa Bowers about his collaboration with Martha Graham on her work Letter to the world; Graham's work Deaths and entrances including his interpretation of the work; collaborating with Graham on The scarlet letter after a long hiatus in their relationship; his problems with the orchestration and part of the original scenario; the evolution of the choreography from an emphasis on Hester Prynne to Dimmesdale; his view that a substantial portion of the choreography was created by the dancers; revivals of Letter to the world and Deaths and entrances; reasons he would probably refuse any new commissions to compose for a choreographer; Graham's personality; his thoughts on Merce Cunningham and John Cage's music including an anecdote about Cage; Graham's remarks on Puritanism.
- Alternative Title
- Dance Oral History Project.
- Dance Audio Archive.
- Subjects
- Genre/Form
- Interviews.
- Sound recordings.
- Note
- For transcript of interview see: *MGZMT 3-466.
- Interview with Hunter Johnson conducted by Theresa Bowers for the Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, on December 27, 1978 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
- For transcript of interview, see *MGZMT 3-466.
- Sound quality is excellent.
- Title supplied by cataloger.
- Access (note)
- Patrons may access streaming audio only on site at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.
- Funding (note)
- The conservation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The support of the National Endowment for the Arts is also gratefully acknowledged.
- Call Number
- *MGZTCO 3-466
- OCLC
- 78374732
- Author
Johnson, Hunter, 1906-1998, interviewee.
- Title
Interview with Hunter Johnson, 1978
- Production
1978
- Type of Content
spoken word
- Type of Medium
audio
- Type of Carrier
online resource
- Digital File Characteristics
audio file
- Restricted Access
Patrons may access streaming audio only on site at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.
- Event
Recorded by Theresa Bowers for the Oral History Project of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 1978, December 27 Raleigh (N.C..)
- Funding
The conservation and cataloging of this recording was made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. The support of the National Endowment for the Arts is also gratefully acknowledged.
- Original Version
Original format: one sound cassette (approximately one hour and 31 minutes); polyester; quarter-track; 1.875 ips; transferred to wav file and streaming file format (myd_mgztco3466_v01f01_sc and myd_mgztco3466_v01f02_sc) in 2015.
- Local Note
Former call number: *MGZTC 3-466
- Connect to:
- Added Author
Bowers, Theresa, interviewer.
- Research Call Number
*MGZTCO 3-466