Research Catalog

Title

Interview with Monk, Meredith. April 6, 1976, 1976.

Author

Monk, Meredith

Publication

1976

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Cohen-Stratyner, Barbara Naomi

Description

3 sound discs (approximately two hours and 36 minutes): digital; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

• Disc 1 (approximately 47 minutes). Meredith Monk speaks with Barbara Naomi Cohen-Stratynerabout the problems of directing a work in which she is also performing; working in live theater as compared to film; Monk's work Quarry in particular the music; her tendency to focus on vocal music, her difficulties with notating her music; her teachers at Sarah Lawrence College including Beverly Schmidt [Blossom], Bessie Schönberg, and Ruth Lloyd; [Cohen-Stratynerspeaks about composing for prepared instruments]; Monk's composing for herself in particular her own voice; her thoughts on Judson [Dance Theater]; Judith Dunn's classes; working with Merce Cunningham; her tendency to alternate theater works with solo voice concerts; more on Quarry,including the process of its creation and her use of figurative rather than abstract images; the cast including the factors on which she based their selection; the music [ends abruptly but continues on disc 2].
• Disc 2 (approximately 47 minutes). Meredith Monk continues to speak with Barbara Naomi Cohen-Stratynerabout her work Quarry including her intent that it be a requiem; intermissions; her participation in the Billy Rose series [performances of works by Monk and other choreographers at the Billy Rose Theatre in New York from February 3-8, 1969]; the various circumstances under which she has found the people she has worked with, including PIng Chong; teaching; more on the relationship of creating, directing and performing; touring; Monk's and Ping Chong's work Paris/Chacon/Venice/Milan including its sexual edge as compared to Quarry; Monk's work Education of the girlchild including its incorporation of a broad spectrum of gender types; filming her work including Quarry; various venues in which her works have been performed including her love of vertical space for example the [Solomon R.] Guggenheim Museum; her work Vessel; her experience staging Vessel for a different company; works she would like to direct; her admiration of Gertrude Stein's writing; more on the relationship of directing and performing; her work as her meditation; more on Education of the girlchild, in particular her role; her relationship with the audience [ends abruptly but continues on disc 3].
• Disc 3 (approximately one hour and two minutes). Meredith Monk continues to speak with Barbara Naomi Cohen-Stratynerabout the relationship with the audience; costumes; more on Quarry; her early dance training including class with Louis Horst; Martha Graham technique and Humphrey-Weidman technique; her enjoyment as a child of Eurythmics; her almost exclusive use of her own music for her choreography; her work Roots, including her collaboration with Donald Ashwander; Yvonne Rainer's work The mind is a muscle; the pressure to create new works as an impediment to keeping one's best works in repertory; looking at other people's work compared with looking at her own; the specificity of her works with respect to the dancers on whom they were choreographed, for example in her and Ping Chong's work Chacon; reasons she likes New Mexico; states of consciousness before and during a performance; her work Needle-Brain Lloyd and the Systems Kid including her playing with scale; her work Duet with cat's scream and locomotive, in particular the use of stilts; various works that were important to her including Break, The beach, and 16 millimeter earrings; the possibility of creating a work for an opera company; her use of the word "opera" with respect to her own work including as compared to Robert Wilson's use of the word for his; the use of rounds in the music in her work Quarry; the nature of the characters in her work, for example as in Girlchild [Education of the girlchild] and in Quarry; her use of a chorus to add certain desired vocal and movement elements to her work; touring.

Subjects

• Paris/Chacon/Venice/Milan (Choreographic work : Monk and Chong)
• Vessel (Choreographic work : Monk)
• Audiotapes > Monk, M
• Monk, Meredith
• Quarry (Choreographic work : Monk)
• Education of the girlchild (Choreographic work : Monk)
• Music and dance

Note

• Interview with Meredith Monk conducted by Barbara Naomi Cohen-Stratnyer, on April 6, 1976 at Monk's home in New York City.
• Sound quality is good. The recording is marred by extraneous noise, including "tape hiss". However, the speakers' voices are easily intelligible.
• Title supplied by cataloger.

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 4-2977

OCLC

869302880

Author

Monk, Meredith, interviewee.

Title

Interview with Monk, Meredith. April 6, 1976, 1976.

Production

1976

Type of Content

spoken word

Type of Medium

audio

Type of Carrier

audio disc

Event

Recorded by Barbara Naomi Cohen-Stratyner 1976, April 6 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: two sound cassettes (approximately two hours and 36 minutes); 1 7/8 ips., originally recorded on April 6, 1976; transferred to wav file and compact disc formats in 2013.

Added Author

Cohen-Stratyner, Barbara Naomi, interviewer.

Cohen-Stratyner, Barbara Naomi, donor

Research Call Number

*MGZTL 4-2977