Ode To Gravity:
An Interview with Phil Winsor, 1981

Recorded in Chicago, in March of 1981, Charles Amirkhanian interviews composer Phil Corner about his music and career. Born in Morris, Illinois, in 1938, Winsor received his initial musical education at Illinois Wesleyan University and San Francisco State University before doing some graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley and doctoral studies at the University of Illinois. While in the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1960s Winsor also worked for several years at KPFA. In this interview Winsor and Amirkhanian introduce a wide selection of Winsor’s compositions from the 1960s and early 70s, including chamber works, electro-acoustic compositions, as well as pieces of pure electronic music. They also discuss Winsor’s impressions of KPFA, what it was like as a student of Robert Erikson, as well as his own experiences teaching at DePaul University in Chicago. Winsor mentions some of his frustrations with conservative academia, as well as the change in expectations and familiarity with traditional orchestral instrumentation among his current students.

Note: It is uncertain if the organ piece is Orgel I or Orgel II, although the latter seems the most likely.