Four American Composers, Vol. IV: Meredith Monk

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🎙️ EPISODE 416: 03.08.22 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟏𝟎-𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐞 RANKING GREENAWAY 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 I'm not sure that documentary is the best mode for Peter Greener to work in, especially knowing — as you'll come to find out — how he feels about history and documentation. This will become a big part, if not the biggest part of his work thematically in the years to come. He concludes the Four American Composers series with a look at the enigmatic Meredith Monk. In this case, I found Monk's lengthy and well considered explorations into her process to be extremely helpful with uncovering some of the meaning and intent. I definitely liked to hear her talk about this music more than I enjoyed listening to it, which — as the Red Letter Media gang found out — can be A LOT.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 416C - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 416E ⫸

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Four American Composers is a 4-part documentary that follows four different contemporary composers performing/creating/building their shows. Peter Greenaway leads us through the creative process of 4 very different composers in style: sound and noise (John Cage) repetition and discipline (Philip Glass), poetry and musical freedom (Robert Ashley) and vocal experimentation (Meredith Monk) who are all framed under the same musical genre, contemporary music. It was released on May 1, 1983.