Beth Anderson
Beth Anderson on phoning up John Cage, not "looking like" a composer, and the collage that is life.
Photo: Suzanne Kaufman
WHO
Beth Anderson is a composer of new romantic music, text-sound works, and music theater events. Her early work was considered post-Cagian, non-academic but more recently, the music became more lyrical while retaining the cut-up quality of the minimalists. She has composed and has had produced an opera, an oratorio, three off-off Broadway musicals, several downtown music theater collaborations, music for orchestra, voice, chorus, tape, instrumental solos with and without electronic modulation, and a large amount of chamber music, in this country and in Europe, on radio and in concert. She has taught at New York University, Mills College Preparatory, the N.Y.C. Public School System, Young Audiences, the New School for Social Research, D.C. 37, and the College of New Rochelle. Her articles have been published in Heresies Magazine, Paid My Dues, The Soho Weekly News, and in Ear Magazine, which she created/edited/published in New York City and edited/published in San Francisco. Her publishers include Joshua Corp./E.M.I., Recital Music in England and Antes/Bella Musica in Germany.
EXTRAS
Beth's 1980 essay, Beauty Is Revolution.
"You have to say yes to what comes out. You can scoot it around a bit, but the basic material that jumps out of you is you. If you say, "That sounds like a raisin commercial," you are telling yourself you are trashy. You are allowing others to tell you what real art is."
WATCH
WHAT's mentioned in this episode:
Cecile Chaminade (1857-1944): Composer and pianist
Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016): Composer, accordionist, founder of Deep Listening
John Cage (1912-1992): Composer, writer, philosopher, artist
Charlotte Moorman (1933-1991): Cellist and performance artist
Alison Knowles: Visual artist and a founding member of the Fluxus movement
Zaj: Performance art group from Spain, active 1959-1993
Merce Cunningham: Dancer and choreographer
Swale the racehorse (1981-84): Kentucky Derby winner, 1984
The Listening to Ladies promo video: What do composers look like?
LISTEN
I Can't Stand It begins at 0:55. From the album Peachy Keen-O, Pogus 2003.
Torero Piece begins at 4:20. From the album Peachy Keen-O, Pogus 2003.
Ode begins at 7:49. From the album Peachy Keen-O, Pogus 2003.
Pennyroyal Swale begins at 11:01 and is excerpted again at 24:45. From the album Swales and Angels, New World Records 2004.
New Mexico Swale begins at 16:24. From the album Swales and Angels, New World Records 2004.
Note: The final music excerpted is a 2nd section of Pennyroyal Swale.