Research Catalog

Merce Cunningham narration audio takes for Camera three: a video Event (Motion picture) : and, Event for television (Motion picture) ; and, David Vaughan's lecture on Merce Cunningham

Title
Merce Cunningham narration audio takes for Camera three: a video Event (Motion picture) : and, Event for television (Motion picture) ; and, David Vaughan's lecture on Merce Cunningham, 1974-05/1978.
Publication
  • May, 1974.
  • November, 1976.
  • [1978].

Available Online

NYPL Digital Collections

Details

Additional Authors
  • Ardolino, Emile
  • Brockway, Merrill
  • Cunningham, Merce
  • Vaughan, David, 1924-
  • Cage, John.
  • Wolff, Christian, 1934-
  • Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
  • WCBS-TV (Television station : New York, N.Y.), television producer.
  • WNET (Television station : New York, N.Y.), television producer.
  • Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, donor.
Found In
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
Description
4 streaming audio files (98 minutes total) : digital, stereo
Summary
  • Streaming file 1, cassette no. 1, side a: Take one information and test tones; Merce Cunningham introduces Camera three: A video Event; Cunningham speaks about teaching; he gives an overview of his choreographic process and approach; he speaks about his dancers and their approach to his choreography; Cunningham gives an example of what he calls "facts in dancing" by describing his Winterbranch (1964); Cunningham briefly describes the choreographic structure of Second hand (1970); [excerpt of music plays: Christian Wolff's Burdocks (1971)]; Cunningham speaks about the independence of dance and music in his work; Cunningham describes a new work in progress; [excerpt of music plays: Christian Wolff's Burdocks (1971)]; Cunningham describes his TV rerun (1972); ends abruptly, ca. 22:11; take two information and test tones, ca. 22:12-22:30; Cunningham describes his choreographic process; he speaks about walking as movement; he speaks about the general structures of his dances, especially his use of timing with a stopwatch; he speaks about the ambiguity of meaning in his work; Cunningham briefly describes his Changing steps (1973), and Landrover (1972); he tells an anecdote about a conversation at a party for the New York Mycological Society; [excerpt of music plays: Christian Wolff's Burdocks (1971)]; Cunningham briefly describes his Signals (1970); he speaks about how his deep enjoyment of dance sustains his interest in dance.
  • Streaming file 2, cassette no. 1, side b: David Vaughan gives an introduction to his lecture on Merce Cunningham at an unidentified location; Vaughan gives a biographical overview of Cunningham's life and career in dance; topics include: Cunningham's early years and dance teachers, Cunningham's activities while at Cornish College of the Arts, John Cage teaching at Cornish College, artistic influences on Cunningham during his student years including being in the Pacific northwest, teacher Bonnie Bird, anthropologist Joyce Wike, writer Nancy Wilson Ross, Dada and Zen Buddhism, Cunningham's meeting of Martha Graham and moving to New York to dance with her Martha Graham Dance Company, presenting a concert at Bennington College in 1942 with Jean Erdman and Nina Fonaroff with music by Cage, the repeat of the concert in New York that included his Totem ancestor (1942), Cunningham and Cage's tour of the United States by car throughout the late 1940's and the audiences' reception of those performances, Cunningham's Root of an unfocus (1944) and the relationship between the music and dance in that work, [shows an excerpt from Second hand (1970)], the influence of James Joyce's writings on Cunningham, Ballet Society's commission for the Seasons (1947) and Isamu Noguchi's sets, the summer of 1948 at Black Mountain College and the collaborative performance of Erik Satie's Piège de Méduse, Sixteen dances for soloist and company of three (1951) as the first instance of Cunningham's use of chance methods, the Brandeis University commissioned works Noces (1952) and Collage (1952), the summer of 1952 at Black Mountain College and a performance there of one of the first "happenings", influences on Cunningham and Cage at that time including Abstract Expressionist paintings and their study of Zen Buddhism, Cunningham and Cage's meeting of Robert Rauschenberg in 1952, taking dancers to Black Mountain College in the summer of 1953 as the formation of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Cunningham's collaboration with Rauschenberg on Minutiae (1954), [shows an excerpt from Minutiae], Cunningham's use of chance methods in choreography, Cunningham's influence on the Judson Dance Theater and the differences of his work from theirs, [shows an excerpt from Story (1963)], the Company tours in the Volkswagon bus, the Company's 1964 world tour and recognition in Europe that created more interest in United States, Rauschenberg leaving the Company in 1964, the multi-media work Variations V (1965); ends abruptly.
  • Streaming file 3, cassette no. 2, side a: An introduction to the Event for television, John Cage's Branches (1976) plays in the background throughout; Merce Cunningham speaks about his definition of dance and his lifelong interest in dance; Cunningham speaks about the collage of dances from his repertory being presented in the program; he tells a brief anecdote about an audience's response to his work; he gives the date range for the works being shown; he speaks about the independence of the music and dance, their coexistence in performance, and their representation of complex relationships in nature; he continues to speak about what dancing means to him as an "amplification of energy"; more on his interest in new movement, collaborating with composers, and the dancers with whom he works; he gives a brief explanation on how to view his works.
  • Streaming file 4, cassette no. 2, side b: Begins abruptly; David Vaughan continues to give a biographical overview of Merce Cunningham's life and career in dance; topics include: Cunningham's multi-media work Variations V (1965), Jasper Johns joining the Company as artistic advisor and his selection of other artists who created set design for Cunningham's works, the set for Walkaround time (1968) that was inspired by Marcel Duchamp's Large glass and constructed by Johns, the set by Robert Morris for Canfield (1969), more on how Cunningham collaborated with visual artists and composers, the creation of the structure for, and concepts behind, Events in 1964, Mark Lancaster, the current artistic advisor and set designer for the Company, the set by Morris Graves for Inlets (1977), Cunningham's interest in exploring dance for the camera, especially his collaborations with filmmaker Charles Atlas, [shows excerpts from Fractions (1977), Locale (1977), and Roamin' I (1978)].
Uniform Title
  • Event (Choreographic work : Cunningham)
  • Camera three (Television program)
  • Dance in America.
Alternative Title
  • Camera three: a video Event
  • Event for television
  • Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Audio materials.
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Film soundtracks.
  • Lectures.
Note
  • Contains audio track recordings of Merce Cunningham's narration for Camera three: A video Event (Motion picture), and for Event for television (Motion picture). Also contains a lecture given by David Vaughan at an unidentified date and location. The relationships between the audio takes and the lecture, if any, are unidentified.
  • Title, dates and locations provided by cataloger based on typed and handwritten notes on original containers and cassettes, audition, and information provided by David Vaughan's Merce Cunningham: Fifty years (New York, Aperture).
  • Typed note on original container no. 1: "Camera III Part 1 & 2 - David Vaughan Lecture". Handwritten note on original container no. 1: "A. 30 min. approx ; many gaps ; B. DV Lecture ; entire side ; 45 min". Handwritten note on original cassette no. 1: "A. Camera III Part I + II ; B. DV Lecture Part I".
  • Typed note on original container no. 2: "Dance in America - David Vaughan Lecture". Handwritten note on original container no. 2: "A. only to first marker ; 1/6 tape ; 8 min or so ; B. first 1/3 of tape ; 15 min or so". Handwritten note on original cassette no. 2: "A. Dance in America ; first 1/8th ; B. DV Lecture Part II - 160 ; first 3/8".
  • Sound quality of streaming files 1 and 3 are good; streaming file 1 contains background sounds of Cunningham teaching and the dancers' footfalls. Sound quality of streaming files 2 and 4 are fair; while the speaker is audible, there is a loud hum throughout the recordings.
Access (note)
  • Patrons can access streaming audio only on site at NYPL Research Libraries.
Event (note)
  • Lecture recorded at an unidentified location in 1978 [date based on the mention of the premiere performance of Inlets (1977) and the screening of Roamin' I (1978) in David Vaughan's lecture].
Source (note)
  • Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation
Linking Entry (note)
  • Forms part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
Call Number
*LTC-A 1444
OCLC
913959690
Title
Merce Cunningham narration audio takes for Camera three: a video Event (Motion picture) : and, Event for television (Motion picture) ; and, David Vaughan's lecture on Merce Cunningham, 1974-05/1978.
Production
May, 1974.
November, 1976.
[1978].
Playing Time
003207 004653 000613 001249
Type of Content
spoken word
Type of Medium
audio
Type of Carrier
audiocassette
online resource
Digital File Characteristics
audio file
Event
Camera three: a video Event recorded at the WCBS-TV Studio, New York, New York, 1973 May.
Event for television recorded at the Grand Ole Opry for WNET's Dance in America program in, Nashville, Tennessee, 1976 November.
Lecture recorded at an unidentified location in 1978 [date based on the mention of the premiere performance of Inlets (1977) and the screening of Roamin' I (1978) in David Vaughan's lecture].
Restricted Access
Patrons can access streaming audio only on site at NYPL Research Libraries.
Original Version
Archival originals: (2 audio cassettes (98 minutes total) : analog) in *LTC-A 1444.
Linking Entry
Forms part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
Local Note
Transferred from two original analog cassettes by George Blood Audio on March 25, 2015; four preservation files were created based on cassette sides.
Source
Gift; Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, 2011-2012.
Connect to:
NYPL Digital Collections
Added Author
Ardolino, Emile, television producer.
Brockway, Merrill, television director.
Cunningham, Merce, narrator.
Vaughan, David, 1924- speaker.
Container of (work): Cage, John. Branches. Selections.
Container of (work): Wolff, Christian, 1934- Burdocks. Selections.
Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
WCBS-TV (Television station : New York, N.Y.), television producer.
WNET (Television station : New York, N.Y.), television producer.
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, donor.
Added Title
Related to (work) : Event (Choreographic work : Cunningham)
Camera three (Television program)
Dance in America.
Camera three: a video Event
Event for television
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Audio materials.
Found In:
Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.
Research Call Number
*LTC-A 1444
View in Legacy Catalog