In this brief interview with Charles Amirkhanian, recorded on Nov. 20, 1980, composer Charlemagne Palestine discusses how his early minimal drone works were a reaction to the dense compositional style of Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage, but have since evolved beyond basic minimalism to embrace a more complex sonority. He then goes on to give a description of his string piece for 11 performers, “Birth of a Sonority”, as well as his pieces for the Bösendorfer piano. Much of Palestine’s work is focused on the use of overtones. The interview concludes with an excerpt of “Schlingen Blaengen” an organ piece recorded in 1979. |