Morning Concert:
An Interview with Philip Corner

Charles Amirkhanian talks with one of New York City’s finest, composer Philip Corner, longtime stalwart of the avant-garde music and art scene in Lower Manhattan. Corner studied briefly with Olivier Messiaen in Paris in 1955, and in 1958 at the New School for Social Research he attended John Cage’s class which included such distinguished budding artists as Allan Kaprow, George Brecht, Dick Higgins, and others who would make their marks in the lively East Village scene of the 1960s. An articulate and persuasive spokesperson for new music, Corner talks about his own music, such as his food related performances, his association with the Fluxus group of artists, and the role of meditation in many of his compositions, during a late-night conversation recorded at his West Broadway flat on December 7, 1977, in New York City. Musical selections on this program include a performance of Corner’s “Metal Meditations.”