Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Samuel Barber. May 20, 1975, 1975.

Author

Barber, Samuel, 1910-1981

Publication

1975

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Gruen, John

Description

2 sound discs (approximately one hour and 10 minutes): digital; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

• Disc 1 (approximately 49 minutes). [During the first approximate 16 minutes of the recording John Gruen introduces the composer Samuel Barber, names the two major dance works choreographed to his music, reads aloud from a publication by James Lyons about Barber's composition Souvenirs and Todd Bolender's eponymous dance choreographed to that music, and speaks about Martha Graham's dance Cave of the heart]; Barber speaks with Gruen about working with Graham including his watching her solitary improvisations after rehearsals; their mutual interest in James Joyce; her commissioning him to create a work about Medea [Barber's composition entitled Medea; Graham's dance ultimately was entitled Cave of the heart]; Graham's attempt to persuade Barber to compose the music for her work Lucifer and the reasons he declined; the successive titles of the Medea work including Barber's preference to have simply entitled it Medea; more on his reasons for not composing the music for Lucifer; more on the process of creating the music for Cave of the heart; anecdotes about Graham and [Paul] Hindemith and Graham and [Isamu] Noguchi; Graham as a dancer; briefly, Graham's musicality; an anecdote about himself and his difficulty with visual cognition [Gruen speaks briefly about Lincoln Kirstein and modern dance]; Barber speaks about Kirstein including Kirstein's view of Souvenirs; Balanchine's suggested images for Souvenirs [ends abruptly but continues on disc 2].
• Disc 2 (approximately 21 minutes). Samuel Barber speaks with John Gruen about Jerome Robbins; reminisces about Rudolf Nureyev including an anecdote about Nureyev's visit to the White House and Jacqueline Kennedy; more on Martha Graham; more on Nureyev; Eliot Feld and the possibility of his choreographing Barber's pas de deux from Medea for Mikhail Baryshnikov and Carla Fracci; his thoughts on Cave of the heart.

Alternative Title

• Dance Oral History Project
• Dance Audio Archive

Subject

• Barber, Samuel, 1910-1981
• Graham, Martha
• Nureyev, Rudolf, 1938-1993
• Souvenirs (Choreographic work : Bolender)
• Music and dance
• Audiotapes > Barber, S

Note

• Interview with Samuel Barber conducted by John Gruen on May 20, 1975 at Barber's home in New York City as part of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Jerome Robbins Dance Division's Oral History Project.
• Title supplied by cataloger.
• Sound quality is good overall. The recording is marred by extraneous noise including "tape hiss" and occasional short gaps. However, the speakers' voices are easily intelligible.

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

*MGZTL 4-336

OCLC

79383394

Author

Barber, Samuel, 1910-1981, interviewee.

Title

Interview with Samuel Barber. May 20, 1975, 1975.

Production

1975

Type of Content

spoken word

Type of Medium

audio

Type of Carrier

audio disc

Event

Recorded by John Gruen 1975, May 20 New York (N.Y.)

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 reel (approximately one hour and 10 minutes); 5 inches; polyester, half-track; 1 7/8 ips., based on a handwritten note on the original container of the archival original sound reel, the sound reel may have been recorded from a sound cassette recorded on May 20, 1975; transferred to wav file and compact disc formats in 2013.

Local Note

For transcript of interview: see *MGZMT 5-336

Former classmark: *MGZT 5-336

Added Author

Gruen, John, interviewer.

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-336