FORUM OF THE ARTS WITH MILDRED KAYDEN: DR. EDGAR COONS, RONALD REINHOLD, JOHN WHITE (RADIO)
Summary
One in this series of talk shows that aired on WEVD in the 1960s in which composer/librettist/Vassar music professor Mildred Kayden interviews renowned performing artists about their musical influences. In this program, Kayden talks with Dr. Edgar Coons, assistant professor of psychology at New York University, Ronald Reinhold, general manager of the New York Pro Musica ensemble, and Pro Musica producer/director John White.
Topics discussed include: Coons' idea for a concert juxtaposing medieval and early Renaissance music with modern-day rock after an impromptu trip to the Electric Circus nightclub on St. Marks Place; his background in music and early training with White, who is a mutual friend of Kayden's and Reinhold's; Reinhold's history with Pro Musica, starting as a librarian and research assistant; the importance of percussion and beat in rock music, contrasted with medieval music and its focus on woodwinds; Coons' sense that modern music has less context and "subtle nuance" than older forms; the "driving rhythm" of some late medieval music; Pro Musica's use of "reconstruction" and improvisation in their productions, exemplified in their performance of the "Play of Daniel," the thirteenth-century musical drama based on the Biblical book of Daniel; the first "Electric Christmas" concert, which combined the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century music of Pro Musica with Morton Subotnick's synthesizer compositions and the psychedelic rock of Circus Maximus, played to a "multi-brow" crowd of varying ages; White's description of their performance of "Douce Dame Jolie," a virelai (a type of medieval French verse) by Guillaume de Machaut, and how Pro Musica and Circus Maximus combined their dissimilar sounds for the concert's closing piece; how the "art music" of the Middle Ages related to the popular music of the era; their Easter concert at the Electric Circus, at which Pro Musica collaborated with Mississippi-based soul group The Chambers Brothers; White's plans for a concert celebrating Eastern European Renaissance music, including the Johannes of Lublin tablature, which Kayden previously helped White to research; Pro Musica's large collection of working Renaissance instrument reconstructions; Coons' interest in the growing popularity of Indian music and instruments; the use of modern-day electronic amplification on ancient instruments; and Coons' sense of the current "investigative age" of music.
Mildred Goldstein studied music at Vassar College under Ernst Krenek, from 1940 to 1942. After graduation, Goldstein worked as an instructor of music literature at Vassar College as well as a composer and lyricist. In 1950, she married Bernard Kayden, taking his name and composing under the name Mildred Kayden. During her career, Kayden wrote operas (including "Mardi Gras" and "The Last Word") and scores for musicals such as "Call the Children Home," "Storyville," "Sepia Star," and the hit 1974 Off Broadway show "Ionescopade" (revived in 2012 by the York Theater in New York City), as well as music and lyrics for the NBC television program "Strangers in the Land."
Mildred Kayden's weekly radio program, "Musically Speaking" -- in which she interviewed luminaries from classical music, opera, theater, dance, and jazz -- aired from 1956 to the early 1960s on WEVD in New York, followed later in the 1960s by the radio program "Forum of the Arts."
Cataloging of this program was made possible by The Kayden Foundation.
Details
- NETWORK: WEVD
- DATE: November 30, 1999
- RUNNING TIME: 0:28:12
- COLOR/B&W: N/A
- CATALOG ID: 108187
- GENRE: Talk/Interview
- SUBJECT HEADING: Talk/Interview; Music; Great Britain - History - Medieval period, 1066-1485; Music - Analysis, appreciation
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Mildred Kayden … Host
- Edgar Coons … Guest
- Ronald Reinhold … Guest
- John White … Guest
- Chambers Brothers, The
- Circus Maximus
- Guillaume de Machaut
- Morton Subotnick
- Johannes of Lublin (see also: Jan z Lublina)