One streaming file (approximately one hour and 33 minutes) : digital, stereo
Summary
Streaming file (approximately one hour and 33 minutes). Norman Dello Joio speaks with Katy Matheson about his family background and training in music; his first professional engagement, as an organist; beginning to compose when he was a student at the Juilliard School; studying with Paul Hindemith; first becoming involved with dance as the musical director of Eugene Loring's Dance Players, including his compositions for Loring's works Prairie and The Duke of Sacramento; reasons he thinks his music is well suited to dance; an anecdote about being asked to compose for [Charles] Weidman; composing music for Michael Kidd [his work On stage] at Ballet Theatre [later American Ballet Theatre]; reminiscences about living and working with the Dance Players; an anecdote about Sol Hurok and On stage; Ballet Theatre in its early days including Antony Tudor and his musicality; Nora Kaye in Tudor's Pillar of fire; working with Martha Graham including an anecdote about their first professional discussion; his first composition for Graham, Diversion of angels, including John Martin's criticism of the music; his thoughts on Graham as an artist and on composing for her; his music for Graham's work Seraphic dialogue [initially choreographed by Graham as a solo for herself under the title The Triumph of St. Joan], including its origins in his opera for Sarah Lawrence College; the Louisville [Kentucky] premiere of the work; the revision and retitling of the work as Seraphic dialogue; his music for her work on Abelard and Heloise, entitled A time of snow; more on Graham as an artist; his music [Meditations on Ecclesiastes] for José Limón's There is a time; other choreographers who have used his music including Helen Tamiris [in Women's song]; his new work As of a dream, a masque inspired by the poetry of Walt Whitman [ends abruptly].
Interview with Norman Dello Joio conducted by Katy Matheson on August 28, 1978 in East Hampton, New York, for The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Jerome Robbins Dance Division Oral History Project.
For transcript see: *MGZMT 5-639.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Sound quality is fair. There is extraneous noise including significant "tape hiss" as well as occasional short gaps, but overall the speakers' voices are intelligible without difficulty.
Access (note)
Patrons may access streaming audio only on site at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.
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.
Author
Dello Joio, Norman, 1913-2008, interviewee.
Title
Interview with Norman Dello Joio. August 28, 1978.
Imprint
1978.
Type of content
spoken word
Type of medium
audio
Type of carrier
online resource
Digital file characteristics
audio file
Restricted access
Patrons may access streaming audio only on site at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.
Event
Recorded for The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts August 28, 1978 East Hampton (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 33 minutes); 5"; polyester; half-track; 1.875 ips.; transferred to wav file and streaming file formats in 2014.