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Music the message. Welcome to a special program presented by your city in which prominent musicians artists interview these interviews are presented with the intention of giving our listeners various insights regarding the interests spiration of our guests your interviewer for today's program is Dr Thomas Griffin program manager of yours that he station our guest today is Mr Arthur Cunningham a composer who was born in New York and studied the Juilliard received be at Fisk University and is at Columbia University Teachers College he's an accomplished instrumentalists on piano and string bass and is has had a lifetime interest in composing he began with piano pieces at age seven progressed through works for student jazz bands as a teenager and during his military service wrote for the Army band for T.V. and soldier shows his numerous compositions include works for a voice as well as instrumental groups one of which was performed last spring by invitation of the Atlanta festival of contemporary music concentric is a work in ten circles which may be disassembled and its units performed in different order or separately now. I might. As a note of introduction indicate that concentric is the title of a composition which Mr Cunningham has written which was commissioned by the Symphony of the new world and will be performed by the Symphony of the new world at their at the next concert on Sunday February second at three pm in Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center here in New York City this will be the world premiere of this composition entitled concentric Mr Cunningham. We're very happy to have you here and I would like to mention the fact that we would be quite interested in hearing about your music in terms of your style of composition and we might start by referring to the music that our listeners heard at the bit at the beginning of the program which I believe is an act and excerpt from Promethea is yes the. Prometheus work. Was written over a period of three years and it. Began to affect my whole being as the work progressed because it dealt mostly with the idea of a civil war in heaven between gods and from the point of view of my upbringing no such thing could exist because there was only one God in heaven was an extremely peaceful place. So as I became more involved in the work I found myself searching my own real belief in things that I had been taught as I was growing up and with the completion of the piece of music I found that it had forced me actually to grow not only as a composer but as a person because I had to find new ways of. Saying new emotions things that I had never felt before and it was a marvelous experience for me. I note from your description that the music apparently is his program magic that is it tends toward the dramatic aspect in music. Do you use that as a model supper on and in terms of writing music do you think in terms of dramatic. Emphasis in your music or is it or is it is this just something that is typical of this particular composition No I am very theatrical person I think of music from the theatre point of view always and I make it come back through sound through to the audience so that I'm always involved with the motivation for a particular situation and I try to set the situation in my language which is the language of music and do you follow any particular. Method or style in your composing I noticed that from the little bit of your music that we have heard thus far that it is strictly in what might be called the contemporary or vein in fact is considered almost on guard. Would you care to defend yourself and when. Well you know. I like very much to write music from a purely scientific point of view and then allow myself to attack it. I will figure out a thing very carefully graphs charts emotional curves psychological motivations and so forth then I'll play it and I'll tear it to pieces and do instinctively what I feel should be done in certain spots now the words the completion of any composition of mine deals with aberrations on the thing that I've done in the beginning purely from an intellectual point of view and other words you you more or less have broken away from any any restrictions or limitations in regard to how moronic form I mean harmonic concepts or formerly done using other words. Musical expression as you view it is something that is completely free from any any restrictions any arbitrary restrictions that might be made in classifying it as yes in terms of form and harmony I see very definitely. My restrictions natural restrictions would be of course ranges of instruments range of the human voice. Also in terms of time span time to me is just like an instrument the span of attention people in today's way of living has a lot to do with the structure of the composition which emerges as the piece goes on in many cases kind of hindsight you look back at it and you see what you did but certainly not that aware of it as you go. In other words you apparently consider the listener as the. As the ultimate object definitely of your composition it's not just something that you don't take the position that. Some composers have taken that is they have something great to offer the world and if the listener doesn't understand it's the if his music doesn't get across to the listener why that's the listener's fault No I don't you know that at all I'll use anything I can possibly do to give him something to sit on so to speak and what he does from that point is the fun is mine can read anything into what he likes but as long as I am communicating some kind of message this is what I'm after really I regard myself as a kind of a reflection device anyway I think the things that happen in this world come in through me and I reflect them it's my my way of letting you know what I see and how I feel about what I see I think it would be. Quite interesting and enlightening to the listeners as well as myself if we were to hear one or two of your compositions I think it would give us a much greater insight into your. Style of composing. We have here to compositions which were based on the text of Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare and which Mr Cunningham has written and. They are two compositions out of five which were were written originally the first one is called asleep my love Mr Cunningham could you tell us a little bit about that before we listen to it and then we'll talk about it yes it's for cello and voice and it describes a meeting in the Far East of these B.. Finding her lover Paramus asleep but she thinks he is dead. So a joke is turned into something that becomes sort of a tragedy and the show that you'll hear is Paramus and the voices they speak. All right without further ado let's listen to a sleep my love. To a. Was. Found out. The A. Little. Bit in. Was. Long. In. The air. The little. Lol it's. A very beautiful rendition and a very beautiful composition written and somewhat in the style of the at homeless. Is that that one so there could you tell us a. Something more about this particular composition. Well these songs were commissioned by a lead Bellaver lyric soprano and they were premiered at Casa talian at Columbia University and Juilliard music school and this represents one out of five songs that are excerpts yes from a from Midsummer Night's Dream Is this a complete to work that you have done or is it something you plan to do the five year project for me I want to do the entire play for four singers I see Let's listen to the another selection lovers and Mad Men which is another song from the same collection. Could you tell us something about this composition in regards to first of all what is the instrumentation and what is it about as anything you could tell the listeners yes it's a work for soprano and piano its title is lovers and Mad Men it is in serial technique that is I arranged a group of twelve tones and followed them. Rather faithfully throughout the composition and my attitude toward it is that it is a joke a joke in the one nine hundred centuries Sello type manner lovers in Mad Men All right let's listen to lovers and madmen. This. Was. Was one of the. That. Was. Good. Was. Oh. Yes. That. Was. The. That was lovers and Mad Men part of a cycle of five compositions based on the text of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare Mr Cunningham what are the other three the titles of the other three compositions we have one I do wonder everywhere then purple grapes green figs and mulberries and the final in the blade I see a very interesting a selection of titles of nothing other it is reminds me somewhat of. Duke Ellington and his style of selecting interesting titles for his composition the purple grapes title is The diet that the Fairy Queen suggests for ladies to feed their lovers. I see. Nothing intended there no. Well let's go on and of course these selections will not be heard at the concert and nor will the next concert next selection that we're going to hear but it does give us some insight as to your style of composing So tell us about this composition that you've been titled Promethea us what is that about Promethea is a work for bass voice and piano and it. Involves a. Setting of of how premise he is felt being chained to this mountain to suffer the indignities that Zeus. Put upon him for helping man because coding to Greek mythology man was only made to be the servant of the gods and Promethea is felt that one day the newest gods would be mankind so he did all he could to help man to ceases living in in the holes in caverns in the earth and come out and live in the sun is this based on a. Dramatic text very much so it's the translation from the original Greek play one by ash as jealous I see well let's let us listen to for me theists at least a portion of it and. React we will hear Promethea as being chained to the mountain then we will hear as the final section is being attacked by the vulture that Zeus gave him as a present to pick his losing liver by day and allowed to grow back by night so his torture was never ending. As. An. As. An as as. A rapper and as. A rapper. A rare the all. The. Work. The. The you know the. The. Cock the. The and the. Not. The same. Bag. The book. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The. The non. The. The. The. The. The the. The room. That was a part of Promethea for composition by Mr Cunningham. All of the selections that we heard today you featured a vocalist However the composition that will be performed by the orchestra this and the Symphony of the new world I understand that that is a strictly instrumental composition Yes that's right. That piece. Is a a social comment on on the scene today and I'm talking of how many parts consisting of of ten parts ten parts and it's bound together by. A kind of an attitude that I developed toward. My musical material in the very beginning before I began to think even any sounds at all and I tried to relate all of my materials together by thinking very carefully about how I was feeling about the situation in the world today and I let that be my theme. We wish to thank you Mr Cunningham for being our guest today on music and the message we shall look forward to hearing the premier performance of your composition and titled concentric Once again I shall remind our listeners that this composition was commissioned by the Symphony of the new world and will be performed by this orchestra under the direction of Mr Benjamin Steinberg at the next concert the next concert will be held at Philharmonic Hall Lincoln Center on Sunday February second at three P.M.. You have been listening to music and the message a special program presented by your city station in which prominent musicians and artists are interview your host for today's program was Dr Thomas Griffin your system program manager of your city station. The. The. The. The.