Matthew Paris interviews Ben Weber. Tape 1 of 1.

Paris writes:

Ben is an improbable genius even among the inherent rarity of such people of great talent. Born in Kentucky, raised in Chicago, a New Yorker for decades, Ben was part of that fertile group that includes John Cage, Ned Rorem, David Diamond, Virgil Thomson, and Lou Harrison all of whom once resided in the West Village.

They have generated a good deal of audacious Art many people admire. Ben made his living such as it was copying music was after a few jobs like working for the Bureau of Water Supply. Many of the scores people play of Artur Schnabel or Virgil Thomson were engraved by Ben. He also did fetch Henderson's charts for Benny Goodman.

One might say Ben was the ultimate provincial. He was formed by European music though he had been to Europe only once, given a trip to Rome on a Ford Foundation grant. His favorite composers were Busoni, Debussy Ravel, Scriabin, anybody who had intrepidly explored vertical intervals as he had.

Twelve-tone craft gave Ben a chance to investigate the ultimately exquisite. Schoenberg veneer had a tremendous dominating taste for the decadent though he wrote plenty of very effective decadent music. Schoenberg had a detachment if he understood and could amply express decadence; Ben was more like Ravel, one who loved decadence.

This thaumaturge aesthetic worthy of Merlin didn't do Ben's health any good in the long run. He slowly produced a large body of beautiful music. It deserves its day.

Ben always had lots of friends, was a great cook, gave little parities a due, could be very entertaining. He also had a tremendous dark streak which shows up often in his music.

He was a consummately enchanting talker. Ben lived in an inner world of tyros and hermetic masters as he imagined Europe to be. His favorite composer was Busoni. He played Busoni's demon-haunted Doktor Faust quite often for his pleasure. Part of Ben's charm was that he could be a bringer of arcana to the world, a doomster and offer a blue phrase in the same sentence.

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